Moses Lake wrestling optimistic about upcoming season

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake head coach Jaime Garza is entering his seventh season.

He’s seen disappointments, near misses, a handful of individual state champions and the program’s 18th title in 2015.

This year’s group may draw on that experience the most.

A senior class that included two-time state champion Hunter Cruz has moved on. Jonathan Tanguma, who took seventh at 106 pounds as a freshman, is the lone returning state placer.

It’s a team with potential. A potential that may take some time to extract.

“This year, the first week has looked drastically different than any of the other years that I’ve coached,” Garza said. “We spent a lot of time over the summer assessing what it is that we have to do in order to be successful and I really feel like we need to focus on being able to sustain in a stance and hold that for a long period of time.”

The Chiefs are undoubtedly young, but talented. The back to basics approach implemented in these early weeks is to ensure a strong showing in February, not December or January.

“I recognize I can’t shoot for the stars the third week in December when Tri-State rolls around,” Garza said. “I have to recognize that that tournament is just another tournament. However, the district and regional and state tournament is where it’s happening.”

Moses Lake’s youth movement includes sophomores Tanguma, Hunter White, Maximus Zamora, Everett Ashley and Cruz Vasquez. At this juncture, Vasquez is the team’s lone captain.

“Cruz is a great example on the wrestling mat, on the cross country field, in the classroom, amongst his peers outside of wrestling is how I’ve observed him as a great kid and he possesses those qualities,” Garza said. “We’re looking at someone that takes their education seriously, someone that is respectful of his peers and his teachers, someone that sets a standard for himself that’s higher and wants that out of his teammates as well.

“When I was looking at who’s going to guide this team early in the season, he’s the guy right now. There are other guys who have the potential to do it and they’re right there on the cusp.”

The youngsters are buoyed by upperclassmen Xzavier Villarreal, Riley Burgess, Bryan Guzman, Sebastian Rodriguez, Jose Salazar-Villa and Matthew Humpherys. Burgess was a state participant a season ago, while Villarreal and Rodriguez bowed out late in the regional tournament.

“When I look at our lineup and I look at how we’re paired with another district, I feel like we have the potential to send anywhere from 11 to 13 guys to the state tournament ... give or take,” Garza said.

That gaudy number comes from another shift in Moses Lake’s region. The Columbia Basin Big Nine will now pair with the 4A KingCo league at the regional tournament. Redmond, ranked 17th, is the only program to crack the first list provided by Washington Wrestling Report. The strongest postseason competition prior to the Mat Classic will come from Moses Lake’s own district, which features second-ranked Sunnyside and returning state champion John Sowers of Davis.

Moses Lake can only advance three wrestlers from the district tournament, which will add immense pressure to consolation matches and later rounds.

“It’s the blood round,” Garza said. “There’s going to be a lot of guts that are going to have to appear on that match in order for them to pull through, whoever it is, and I hope that we’re developing those every day that we step into this room and that is our motto.”