Chiefs sweep includes narrow win over Mead

The Chiefs may have finally found their mojo,

A narrow defeat at top-ranked Lake Stevens on Jan. 14 was followed by a strong second-place finish at the Marysville Premiere.

On Saturday, they took the next step.

The Chiefs rolled past Rogers (Puyallup) 51-20, beat back a feisty Union (Vancouver) team 42-31, and then wrapped up their title with a dramatic 30-26 win over state heavies, Mead of Spokane.

"I was very happy with how we ended up," Moses Lake head coach Jamie Wise said. "We wrestled very well in the first dual but not so well in the second. Mead had smoked Union pretty good and we struggled a bit. We didn't wrestle very well there. Going against Mead in the final one I was unsure about that one. The guys corrected a few things and they battled in a way that was the best they had all year. It was fun to watch how they came back and competed."

Against Rogers, the Chiefs pulled out to the win behind eight pin victories recorded by Fernando Leyva (103 pounds), Tanner Long (112 pounds), Colton Cole (135 pounds), Herson Rodriguez (140 pounds), Nico Moreno (145 pounds), Luciano Hernandez (171 pounds), Brian Chamberlain (215 pounds), and Kabe Fluaitt (285 pounds).

Underlying the team's total dominance in these wins was the fact it took less than the time to wrestle two complete matches of three round to record the 48 points via pin.

Nathan Martinez secured a 6-1 win at 152 pounds for the other Chiefs' points.

"We beat them worse this time then when we first wrestled them in Moses Lake," Wise said. "We wrestled pretty well. Eight pins is a great way to start. Any time you get those extra bonus points doesn't hurt."

However, that performance didn't carry over to as strong an outing against Union.

"We had never seen them before and it's a new school," Wise said. "They have some really tough individuals and so we didn't get some pins that we normally would count on. It came down to the last couple of matches before we opened up on them."

Moses Lake led only 18-15 after the first six matches, as Beau Gleed (119 pounds), Omar Suarez (125 pounds), and Leyva recorded pins.

Then Rodriguez scored a 15-5 victory before Moreno captured his second pin win and the Chiefs were up 28-15.

Union battled back to take the next three decisions and were up 31-28 before Derek Frederickson (189 pounds) and Chamberlain nailed down decision victories and Fluaitt nailed down his second pin victory to seal the Chiefs comeback.

Then came the decider against Mead.

"This time of year is when we need to see improvements from match to match," Wise said. "We wrestled much better from the second match to the third."

Mead jumped out to an 8-0 lead before Gleed nailed down a 4-3 win at 119 and Brad Fox (125 pounds) scored a first-round pin to climb on top 9-8.

Mead then scored three straight decision wins, including Rodriguez's 1-0 overtime loss which Wise called a "barn burner."

With Mead up 17-9, the Chiefs started its ascent.

Moreno took down Chandler Rogers 9-4 in a dominating win over a top-notch opponent.

"Nico had a much better strategy this time with a much better motion," Wise said. "He held him on his back to get those bonus points and it allowed him to open up a bit more. He's also got a better set of lungs and he's much sharper looking."

Martinez then won 5-2 to narrow the gap to 17-15.

Mead would then score two more wins, including a pin at 171 pounds to lead 26-15.

From there Frederickson captured a 6-4 win before back-to-back pin victories by Chamberlain and Fluaitt finished off the narrow win.

"It looks like we have a couple of kids that are making the kind of changes and if they can keep doing what they are doing they can be key for some big points for us to score points for a state title," Wise said. "I feel bad that Mead has lost their 140-pound kid for the year with a knee injury. They could use their points and they will still be a tough team. Lake Stevens is still going to be very tough."