Moses Lake notches seven straight first-round pins, steamrolls Davis 62-16
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake's Caleb Lawson scores two back points against Josh Fernandez of Davis.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake's Bailey Sanchez grapples with Davis' Alexander Huizar.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Levi Carlos of Moses Lake controls Luis Ramirez of Davis from the top position.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake's Payton Castro reaches for the leg of Davis' Daniel Fuentes.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake's Daiman Vasquez gets in position to pin Alejandro Bruno of Davis.
MOSES LAKE — There’s a colloquialism in baseball that hitting is contagious.
For Moses Lake wrestling, pinning was contagious Tuesday night against Davis. The Chiefs picked up seven pins in a row — eight total — and surged past the Pirates 62-16.
Remarkably, all eight came in the first round.
“If we were to go back nearly 10 months ago at the state tournament, Lake Stevens was pulling out big wins and that becomes contagious,” head coach Jaime Garza said. “We were on the opposite side of that at the state tournament... That aura comes around when one kid pulls out a big win, the other kid and all of a sudden the expectation is we need to pull out a win here and we saw that from them last year.”
In the most anticipated home dual within the Columbia Basin Big Nine, Davis snatched the lead and momentum early. John Sowers (138) won by technical fall against Christien Knopp 15-0 and Emiliano Mata (145) pinned Adrian Suarez with 11 seconds to go in the first round. Suarez was slow to get up and was helped off the mat.
All of a sudden, Moses Lake trailed 11-0.
Levi Carlos (152) was ready to change that. Out to atone for a narrow defeat last week against West Valley, Carlos launched into Davis’ Luis Ramirez for a quick take-down and maneuvered for a pin near the boundary line.
“I wanted to go out there and I wanted to prove last week that I deserve to be in the varsity lineup,” Carlos said. “All these guys work hard and it was supposed to be a close dual, but Davis they left out a lot of their guys.”
There was a bit of gamesmanship as the Pirates made five adjustments to their predicted lineup, including the removal of state finalist Christian Reyes at 220 pounds.
“I was looking forward to that match between him (Reyes) and (Payton) Castro,” Garza said. “That did not happen so obviously it changed the dynamic a little bit of that match.”
Carlos began a string of seven straight fist-round pins for the Chiefs. Hunter Cruz (160), Beau Mauseth (170), Bailey Sanchez (182), Daiman Vasquez (195), Castro (220) and Chandler Fluaitt (285) were all on the mat for less than two minutes and all won by fall, helping Moses Lake build a 42-11 lead before the reset. Caleb Alvarado (113) added the exclamation point with a first-round pin of Estevan Gonzalez.
“It was awesome,” Carlos said. “You don’t want to stop that. You want to get the train going and hopefully those guys don’t look back.”
Results:
145: John Sowers d. Christien Knopp (ML) 15-0
152: Emiliano Mata p. Adrian Suarez (ML)
160: Hunter Cruz (ML) p. Binauea Binauea
170: Beau Mauseth (ML) p. Juan Belman
182: Bailey Sanchez (ML) p. Alexander Huizar
195: Daiman Vasquez (ML) p. Alejandro Bruno
220: Payton Castro (ML) p. Daniel Fuentes
285: Chandler Fluaitt (ML) p. Sam Grover
106: Caleb Lawson (ML) d. Josh Fernandez 4-1
113: Caleb Alvarado (ML) p. Estevan Gonzalez
120: Moses Lake forfeit
126: Spencer Humphreys (ML) d. Miguel Britt 16-0
132: Davis forfeit