Chiefs defeat Ike

MOSES LAKE - The difference between winning and losing can be miniscule. The slightest mistake or last second heroic effort often determining the outcome.

And as fate would have it, that's precisely what happened as the Moses Lake High School wrestling team lost to Chiawana 36-34 Wednesday, then beat Eisenhower 35-34 on the road Thursday.

"I really don't like them (the matches) being that close," coach Jamie Wise said. "It's just the way they ended up. We weren't at full strength and had to put in who we had available."

YAKIMA - The Chiefs made the long trip to Cadet country looking to get back on the winning track after a two point loss at home to the Riverhawks Wednesday.

And after a knock down drag out fuss, Moses Lake came out the victor to nail down second place in the Columbia Basin Big Nine standings with a record of 5 wins and one loss.

The Chiefs got out to a quick start as Trey Long (106), Chase Clasen (113), Hayden Wise (120) and Beau Gleed (126) won their matches.

But Eisenhower came storming back with four wins in a row in the middle weights to put the pressure on. The ever reliable Nico Moreno (160) won by an 11-4 decision over Edwin Gudino to put a halt to the Cadet run. The Chiefs Nicolaus Hernandez (170) lost the next match by fall to Humberto Acevedo. Moses Lake bounced back taking three out of the last four matches on wins by Johantan Perales (182), Derek Fredricksen (195) and Justin Sainsbury (285) to pull out the win by the slimmest of margins.

"It came down to a situation where their kid at 220 (Joel Ortega) got slammed and with districts right around the corner we didn't want to see anyone get hurt," Wise said. "So we stopped the match and started over because I didn't want to win that way. He ended up beating Roman (Martinez) and that put a lot of pressure on Justin to pull it our for us and he did, and that was nice to see."