Big Bend women’s wrestling opens season

MOSES LAKE – The Big Bend women’s wrestling team opened the 2024-25 season in Oregon over the weekend, wrestling in a dual against Umpqua Community College Saturday before traveling to the Mike Clock Open at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., on Sunday. 

The Vikings lost 30-9 to Umpqua, the No. 3 ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association, and had five wrestlers place at the Mike Clock Open. 

“We were in a lot of the matches, but it came down to making one or two mistakes that ended up costing us the matches in a lot of weights,” assistant coach Jerry Villa said. “It was pretty awesome to see our girls in our first legit test, and they came out ready to rock. They weren’t missing attitude and effort.” 

Villa noted the Vikings were dealing with injuries to wrestlers at various weight classes, causing some wrestlers to be moved along the lineup in Saturday’s dual meet against Umpqua. 

Sophomore Abigail Varady, who is rostered at 138 pounds but wrestled in the 145-pound bout at the dual, defeated Umpqua’s Tarleen Saroya, ranked No. 4 in the NJCAA, in the dual Saturday. 

“She ended up grinding out a 4-3 victory,” Villa said. “(Varady) hasn’t been ranked before, so it was pretty awesome for her and encouraging for the team. We may not be ranked like some of these girls are, so we’re pretty happy about that performance.” 

Five wrestlers placed at the Mike Clock Open the next day, which featured teams from both four-year institutions and the junior college level; Linfield University, Pacific University, Simon Fraser University, Simpson University, Southern Oregon University, Southwestern Oregon Community College, Treasure Valley Community College and Umpqua Community College, who the Vikings faced the day prior. 

“We can compete with some of these NCAA or NAIA schools that are four-year programs, and that’s what we did,” Villa said. “It was a mentality of, I’ve got to go out and make a name for myself and trust the training that I’ve been doing leading up to this.” 

Big Bend’s Natalie Johnson (104 pounds) and Natalie Marcyes-Weeks (124) both took second in their respective weight classes, while freshman Michelle Acevedo took fifth in the 131-pound class. Freshmen Elia Velazquez and Ihanna Perez took fourth and fifth in the 180-pound class, respectively.  

“All these girls that placed did extremely well,” Villa said. “You’ve got to put in perspective that you’re rolling with schools that are NCAA and NAIA programs.” 

The Vikings feature several wrestlers with Columbia Basin roots; Acevedo is a graduate of Quincy High School while Velazquez hails from Othello High School. Big Bend also rosters freshmen Leslie Sanchez from Ephrata High School, Jara Rodriguez from Royal High School and Emily Barragan from Wahluke High School. 

Altogether, Big Bend has 12 wrestlers on its roster from Eastern Washington.