Moses Lake wins fourth straight regional title, sends nine to state

SPOKANE VALLEY — In the third round of his finals match against Mead’s Trevor Senn, Hudson Mauseth (170) knew his opportunity was close.

Mauseth noticed Senn became winded late his matches after studying film, and with 1:05 to go connected on a take-down for a pin. On the opposite mat, not 30 seconds later, time expired and Dylan Morris (182) edged top-ranked Levi Meinzinger of University 4-3.

The two wrestling partners, Mauseth and Morris, embraced and celebrated Moses Lake’s third and fourth individual regional championships of the day.

“Every single day we drill and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this kid from Mead,’ and I say, ‘I’ve got this kid from University,’” Morris said. “We just bust our butts to make sure we do the best we can and beat these guys because that’s all we think about when we wrestle... We just believe in each other and we work as hard as we can to do the best we can to win these matches and so once we both won our matches it was kind of a relief to see all that hard work pay off in the wrestling room.”

Nick Hara (120) and Hunter Cruz (138) joined Mauseth and Morris as regional champions, powering Moses Lake to a fourth straight team title with 179.5 points.

The Chiefs crowned four champions, had six wrestlers in the finals, advanced nine to the state tournament and had 10 placers.

“To be able to come out and send nine guys shows a lot,” head coach Jaime Garza said. “It explains how hard these guys work. I’m very fortunate with the coaching staff that we have in the room. Most people wouldn’t expect that out of a region like this... It just shows how hard these guys fight, essentially, and they work.”

Jesus Cornejo (106) and Payton Castro (220) were Moses Lake’s two other finalists. Cornejo dropped a 7-3 decision to Sunnyside’s Jose Campos and Castro lost 5-0 to Chiawana’s Levi McBride.

Cooper McCullough (132) and Joel Torres came back from losses in the semifinals to take third place.

Chandler Fluaitt (285) lost his first match to Gonzaga Prep’s Tyler Brookings by fall before rallying to win three matches in a row to finish third. In his final match, Fluaitt avenged his opening round loss to Brookings with a 5-2 win.

Daiman Vasquez (195) took fifth place and will be a state alternate.

Cornejo, Hara, Morris, Castro and Fluaitt will be first-timers to the Tacoma Dome, joining veterans McCullough, Cruz, Torres and Mauseth.

“Coming in this year I really wanted to go to state,” Morris said. “I’ve been busting my butt. I wrote it down. I wrote three, four or five pages in my notebook saying, ‘I want to be a state champion, I want to be a state champion,’ and I believe it 100 percent so I’m improving every single day to make sure I can be the best I can be. Once I won my match to punch my ticket a lot of pressure was lifted off my shoulders and then when I won my last match there was so much relief coming in.”

After bowing out in regionals as a freshman and districts as a sophomore, Hara has impressed during his two-week postseason run.

Matched up with Sunnyside’s Jacob Mendoza for the second straight championship final, Hara caught Mendoza in what’s known in wrestling circles as a “spladle” and pinned him in the second round.

“He just felt it, grabbed it, hooked it and bam; the guy couldn’t move,” Garza said. “The only way he could move is his head up and down slightly as if he was nodding... Nick’s wrestling at a high level. He’s going to be very hard to beat.”

In a somewhat wide open team race for the state championship, Moses Lake reasserted itself as the favorite with a dominating performance in the most difficult regional tournament.

“We’ve still got a lot more work to do,” Mauseth said. “We’ve still got three more days of practice then we’re going to hit that dome and it’s going to be good.”

Othello second at 2A Region IV Tournament

SPOKANE — Othello finished second to regional champion Toppenish with 160 points and will send nine to the state tournament.

Top-ranked Toppenish dominated the field, scoring 229 points.

Alejandro Cardenas (126) was Othello’s lone regional champion. Cardenas edged East Valley’s Randy McDonald 5-4 in the finals.

Collin Freeman (152) and Reese Jones (160) finished second. Freeman lost a 10-1 major decision to West Valley’s Drake Ferguson. Jones was edged by Selah’s Aaron Pimentel 3-2.

Jeremy Mendez (113), Abel Gomez (170) and Anthony Ruiz (195) finished third. Chris Melo (106), Ben Garza (113) and Chemi Cantu (285) punched a ticket to state, placing fourth.

Allen Rosales (170) and TJ Martinez (182) finished fifth and will be state alternates.

Quincy and Ephrata finished 10th and 11th in the team standings with 47 and 37 points, respectively. Quincy qualified two wrestlers for the state tournament: Iche Ramirez (182) and Rey Rubio (285).

Warden misses out on regional championship by seven points

KITTITAS — In a two-horse race for the 1B/2B Region II Tournament championship, Tonasket sneaked past Warden by seven points.

Tonasket totaled 248 points and Warden scored 241. The next closest was Kittitas at 176.5 points.

The Cougars will send 11 wrestlers to the state tournament to defend their team title: Anthony Martinez (106), Osvaldo Dominguez (106), Bryce Martinez (113), Rodrigo Ozuna (120), Johnny Martinez (120), Tyson Yamane (126), Josiah Guerra (132), Peter Manville (145), Raul Martinez (152), Robert Arredondo (170) and Mikey Hernandez (285).

Elijah Gonsalez (160) and Tyrone Mendez (182) are state alternates.

Anthony Martinez, Yamane, Guerra, Manville and Hernandez placed first at regionals.

Bryce Martinez and Rodrigo Ozuna were regional runner-ups. Johnny Martinez finished third, while Dominguez, Raul Martinez and Arredondo all placed fourth.

ACH sends two, LRS three to Mat Classic

REARDAN — Almira/Coulee-Hartline is sending a pair of freshmen to Mat Classic.

Wyatt Zielinski (106) and Jared Goetz (126) placed second and fourth, respectively, at the 1B/2B Region III Tournament.

Lind-Ritzville/Sprague will send three wrestlers to Tacoma: Matthias Federer (132), Tucker Guiles (220) and Karl Hawks (285).

Federer and Hawks placed third at regionals; Guiles finished fourth.