Moses Lake CBBN champs after routing Ike

MOSES LAKE — Dylan Morris doesn’t get pushed around often.

The all-league offensive guard did the pushing in the fall and this winter transformed into one of the top wrestlers in the state at 182 pounds.

So when Eisenhower’s Rafael Suarez took control and moved Morris toward the fringe of Moses Lake’s mat it came as a surprise to everyone in the gym, most notably head coach Jaime Garza.

“He let the guy push him out of his mat,” Garza said. “That’s his mat. Like I said, it says Chiefs on it. He’s a Chief, that’s his mat. Don’t let someone bully you out of your home. So whether he heard that or not I think he got my drift.”

Morris said he didn’t hear Garza’s decree, but something clicked. Using advice from assistant coach, and Moses Lake wrestling luminary, Ron Seibel, Morris worked Suarez onto his back for a pin with one second to go in the first round.

“I was just kind of remembering from the last match, Seibel pulls me to the back he says, ‘Hey, when you have a guy sucked back you really want to dig your elbow into his chest,’” Morris said. “So I got him in that spot and I was thinking about it and I was like, ‘Oh man, this is what Seibel just told me,’ and so I just grabbed his head, lifted it up and just kind of watched the clock and just kind of hoped I got the pin before the second round started.”

Morris’ good fortune extended toward his team as the Chiefs pinned down another Columbia Basin Big Nine League championship with a 64-6 win against Eisenhower.

Moses Lake opened up a 15-0 lead after Cole Deaver (285) ground out a 4-0 win, Caleb Lawson (106) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win by fall in the third round and Jesus Cornejo (113) executed a textbook cradle to pin Jorge Valencia in the first round.

“I felt like we definitely out-wrestled them, we out-performed them and I was pleased because I was expecting them to at least pull out three to four wins,” Garza said. “They only came out with two wins and we came out with 14 so I was super pleased with that.”

Eisenhower’s two wins came at 120 and 132 pounds.

Thomas Hamm (120) lost 6-1 to Erick Chavez and Christien Knopp (132) dropped a 6-0 decision to Julian Alonso. Eisenhower forfeited 126 pounds.

Moses Lake responded with eight wins in a row to close the dual, six coming by way of fall.

Cooper McCullough (138) began the run with an 18-9 win over Manny Chavez.

Hunter Garland-Cruz (145) notched a pin in the third round and Cyrus Knoll (152) rallied from a 5-4 deficit to win 9-5.

A take down to close the second round put Knoll ahead of Francisco Narez for good, 6-5. An escape and take down in the third round sealed the victory.

Joel Torres (160), Hudson Mauseth (170), Morris (182), Daiman Vasquez (195) and Payton Castro (220) ended the dual with five straight pins.

Moses Lake will compete at Dream Duals this weekend before the second season, the postseason, begins Feb. 5.

The Chiefs will look to nab a fourth straight district championship, fourth straight regional champions and, of course, a second straight state championship.

“Anything less than a win is kind of a loss, I guess you would say,” Morris said. “We kind of expect these things like we expect to win districts, regionals and we expect to win state.”

Othello 40, Quincy 21

QUINCY — Othello won eight matches and used extra pin points to beat Quincy 40-21.

Out of Othello’s eight wins, five were by fall.

Chris Melo (106), Isaiah Munguia (113), Jeremy Mendez (120), Reese Jones (160) and Anthony Ruiz (220) all pinned their opponents. Alejandro Cardenas (138), Bernie Garza (145) and Collin Freeman (152) also picked up wins for the Huskies.

Julian Trejo (126), Raul Barajas (132), Victor Tafoya (170), Iche Ramirez (182), Robert Ramirez (195) and Rey Rubio (285) won for Quincy.

Boys swimming

Moses Lake 93, Eastmont 93

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake boys swimming tied with Eastmont, 93-93.

Noah Heaps won the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke; Ander Molitor posted wins in the 50 and 100 freestyle; Garrett Lake finished first in the 500 freestyle.

The Chiefs grabbed extra points with a win in the 200 freestyle relay.