Moses Lake pins its way to first CBBN win
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake recorded the most pins out of any team at last weekend’s El Cajon Invitational.
It’s a roster full of pinners, said head coach Jaime Garza.
No kidding.
Moses Lake pinned 12, including a string of 11 in a row, and beat Eastmont 72-12 in its home opener.
“These guys were really looking for it and I think there was one point where Camron Regan kind of looked at me like, ‘Man, I want to pin him,’” Garza said. “We put him back on his feet because I felt like he needed to work for his shot and eventually that’ll be there.”
Regan did pin Jonathan Ruiz in the late second round of their 138-pound match. It was Moses Lake’s seventh pin in a row, and one of the few matches to go beyond the first round.
“I said, ‘You guys, we’re gonna pin. Let’s get this match over with,’” Garza said. “And not in a mean way, but let’s take advantage. If a guy’s going to put themselves to their back, let’s pin them. In the position that we’re in right now I really like where we’re at, but if we want to be a top three team we need bonus points.”
Bonus points came in bunches Tuesday evening.
Eastmont gained a brief lead when Max Prazer pinned Andrew Kile in the second round of the 220-pound bout. From there, it was all Chiefs.
Saul Villa pinned Wyatte Erdmann to begin the streak of 11 in a row, which turned a 6-0 deficit into a 66-6 lead. Moses Lake’s 72 points is the most since a 73-3 win against Wenatchee in 2017.
“Honestly, that’s what’s going to help us out this year — getting a lot of pins,” Cruz Vasquez said. “I feel like we have a pinning team this year, especially with our lower weights.”
Freshman Jeremiah Martinez made a stunning home debut with a 13-second pin. Fellow freshman Saul Salinas also pinned his opponent in the first round.
“This opportunity to be out here, they’ve thought about it for quite some time,” Garza said. “They’ve been to matches, they’ve envisioned it, they’ve talked about it amongst their friends and their parents and family and now they get to do it, so you better take advantage of this because it’s a very unique situation to be able to wrestle for a program that has been pretty successful.”
Box score
220: Max Prazer (E) p. Andrew Kile
285: Saul Villa (ML) p. Wyatte Erdmann
106: Jeremiah Martinez (ML) p. Eastmont
113: Saul Salinas (ML) p. Carlos Rodriguez
120: Jonathan Tanguma (ML) p. William Rojas
126: Ryan Grubb (ML) p. Jesus Hurtado
132: Hunter White (ML) p. German Jimenez
138: Camron Regan (ML) p. Jonathan Ruiz
145: EJ Martinez (ML) p. Eastmont
152: Maximus Zamora (ML) p. Adrian Vivanco
160: Lerenz Thomas (ML) p. Joseph Busholz
170: Cruz Vasquez (ML) p. Daniel Alvarez
182: Skylar Dawe (E) p. Rene Uribe
195: Everett Ashley (ML) p. Luke Harrison
