Wrestling team finishes seventh at Davenport

Six Raider wrestlers officially opened the 2014-15 season Dec. 6 at the Davenport Invitational, where 13 schools attended, including many from the Northeast A, Bi-County, and other Central Washington League schools.

Oscar Pakootas started his season off on the right foot by taking home the gold medal from Davenport at 138.

In the prelim matches no one seriously challenged Pakootas, who pinned Riley Flack of Freeman in 50 seconds and took down Tommy Ott of Kittitas, 9-0.

In the championship match, Isiah Crane, of Freeman, did stick around, and Pakootas had to wrestle tough. At the final buzzer Pakootas was the champ.

“Oscar had a good day,” Head Coach Steve Hood said. “He had an exciting match, winning 7-4 in the finals.”

Octavio Alejandre was the dominant force at 285. Alejandre pinned Cody Francis of Reardan in the first round, then defeated Peyton Smetana of Freeman 1-0. The win over Smetana set up the championship match against Teigan Glidewell of Freeman.

“Octavio had a good final that could have gone either way, losing 5-0,” Hood said. Alejandre came home with the silver medal and hungry for a rematch.

At 152, Gabe Moses overcame adversity to take third place. After losing his opening match by pin to Alex Hall of Riverside Christian, Moses pinned his next two opponents to set up a match to determine third and fourth place with Mason Anderson of Wilbur-Creston-Keller. Both were disqualified in the placing match and it was decided that Moses was the third-place wrestler. Moses defeated Tim Kopplin of Northwest Christian in 25 seconds and Matthew Delafield of Davenport in a second-round pin.

Reese Caddy, in his first high school event, recorded two wins at 132 pounds. Although Caddy didn’t place, he defeated both Colfax’s Chris Jones and Connor Beattie of Davenport in first-round pins.

Senior Chris Whalawitsa competed in his first high school tourney at Davenport. Whalawitsa came home with two wins, but did not place at 285. Whalawitsa defeated Cameron Moreland of Newport in a second-round pin, then pinned Trevin Kennedy of Colfax in the third round.

Lake Roosevelt scored 62 team points for seventh place in the tournament, right in the middle. Freeman won it with 192, followed by Reardan (156), Liberty (104), Colfax (80), Kittitas (77), and Davenport (75).

Raider Wrestling has two matches this week. Tonight at Gailord Nelson Gym the Raiders are hosting a Mix and Match with Chelan, Brewster, Davenport, and Wilbur-Creston-Keller weather premitting. Matches start at 6 p.m. On Saturday the Wrestlers head south to Connell for the Connell Tourney. Matches at Connell High School start at 10 a.m.

132 Reese Caddy 2-2 DNP

138 Oscar Pakootas 3-0 1st

138 Zach Erickson 0-2 DNP

152 Gabe Moses 2-2 3rd

285 Octavio Alejandre 2-1 2nd

285 Chris Whalawitsa 2-2 DNPl