Moses Lake first at districts, set tournament record

CBH Columbia Basin Herald Sports

by CONNOR VANDERWEYST & Herald Sports Editor
Staff Writer | February 11, 2014 5:00 AM

YAKIMA - Moses Lake wrestling will have a strong representation at next week's 4A Regional 4 Tournament in Spokane.

The Chiefs cruised to a victory in the District 4A Tournament at Eisenhower, setting a tournament record in the process with 461 points. Moses Lake had 16 wrestlers place first or second with one third place finish, which qualifies 17 wrestlers for the regional tournament.

"It's a good number," head coach Jaime Garza said. "It would've been nice if we could've got one or two more, but it is what it is... For the most part the kids wrestled really well."

Some wrestlers shuffled their weight in order to qualify as many people as possible for regionals. Out of the entire field, Moses Lake represented the first and second placers in five weight classes.

Garza believed the schedule the Chiefs wrestled over the course of the season helped in preparation for the first leg of the postseason.

"This tournament... I hope it was kind of an eye-opening experience for some kids just because our schedule is so tough and it's tough for a reason so that when we get to the district tournament it doesn't become one of our harder tournaments," he said.

Moses Lake has also traveled to several tournaments across the state to better familiarize itself with the competition the team will see at the regional and state tournament.

"I seek out the competition within the state for a reason, so we get to come back and it's like, 'OK, yeah I am capable of winning these tournaments,' and that's nice," Garza said.

It was an all Moses Lake final at 106 pounds and Trey Long defeated Cooper McCullough.

The Chiefs continued to dominate the lighter weights as teammates Fernando Leyva and Jose Garcia squared off at 113 pounds with Leyva emerging with the victory.

Clayton Clark defeated teammate Nick Hara at 120 pounds and Chase Clasen took first at 132 pounds after his opponent became injured.

Sean Cotton (138 .lbs) and Cyrus Knoll (145 .lbs) took third and second, respectively.

Joel Torres (152 .lbs), Hudson Mauseth (160 .lbs) and Nico Hernandez (170 .lbs) all placed first.

Jordan Lacelle defeated teammate Easton Castro and 182 pounds. Chiefs Dylan Morris and Masiah Deleon squared off at 220 pounds with Morris taking first.

Justin Sainsbury (285 .lbs) rounded out the regional qualifiers for the Chiefs with a second place finish.

Garza thinks the team will need somewhere between eight and 11 wrestlers to qualify for the state tournament for a chance to take home a team championship.

"We set ourselves up well by getting that many guys into the finals," he said. "It really helped us out because we're going to get some good seeds."