Wrestlers continue improvement process

Raider wrestlers earned success at the two outings they travelled to last week.

Against the Tonasket Tigers, Oroville, and Pateros the three Raider wrestlers at Tonasket Dec. 17 split their matches 2-2. Octavio Alejandre and Oscar Pakootas won matches at Tonasket, while Oscar Pakootas and Reese Caddy lost theirs.

“For the three that wrestled, they came up against good competition at Tonasket,” Head Coach Steve Hood said. “They are going to be a big factor this year in the B’s.”

Hood said the stiff competition is part of the process toward the postseason.

“We wrestled good matches and got good competition from (Tonasket),” he said. “We got what we wanted, and that was mat time and gauging what our strengths are and working on the weakness.”

“We want hard, tough matches to encourage our wrestlers to work hard in the mat room to achieve that continual improvement in the matches, (which) can lead to better things,” he added.

Saturday, the Raiders braved the fog and bad weather to compete in the Cashmere tourney. At Cashmere the Raiders had six wrestlers competing, four of whom placed. In team standings the Raiders finished last out of 10 teams. Still, Coach Hood liked what he saw from the wrestlers, who had improved “on the weaknesses that were highlighted in practice.”

Hood also liked to see what former top Raider wrestler Shane Proctor, now a world-champion bull rider, showed the wrestlers in practice on Thursday and Friday that could be used in the tourney on Saturday.

Octavio Alejandre took home the gold at 285 pounds. Alejandre pinned his first two opponents (Cody Francis of Reardan and Ian Allen of Quincy) before facing Rey Rubio of Quincy in the championship match. Alejandre could not pin Rubio, but he did not let Rubio score any points and came away the victor, 4-0.

Oscar Pakootas overcame adversity to claim a bronze in the 138 bracket. After blowing out Tyson Sandust of Omak 17-0, Pakootas came up against Mat Crise of Chewelah. Crise took the lead but Pakootas came back and forced overtime with an escape. With the match tied five and the first takedown would win. Crise was able to score it before Pakootas.

Rather than hang his head, Pakootas came back and defeated Ryleigh Spaeth of Cashmere 11-4, setting up a third/fourth match with Juan DeLaCruz of Chelan. Pakootas stayed on the offensive and claimed third place 7-2.

“It was a good back-and-forth match,” Hood noted. “Both ran into trouble and were able to counter it to stay wrestling.”

Jacob Smith also took home a bronze at 120 for Lake Roosevelt. Smith defeated Josh Sey of Chelan by major decision before losing to the eventual weight class champ, Caleb Cole of Reardan. Smith rallied back and pinned his way to third place, taking down Mark Jimenez of Chelan and Joe Dallas of Omak.

Reese Caddy took home fifth for LR at 132. Caddy pinned Dan Cloros of Cashmere before losing to Ivan Reyes of Chelan 17-1. Caddy then pinned Page Bates of Cashmere before losing his second match to Will Casados of Mt. Baker by pin. This set up a fifth/sixth match against Steele of Cashmere. Both had wrestled to the one-day limit, so the match could not be decided on the mat. In a conference, the tourney officials awarded fifth place to Steele. As no match was wrestled, then both Caddy and Steele should be considered as placing fifth.

Michael Thomas wrestled his first matches ever at Cashmere in the 160 bracket. He lost both but both his coaches noticed Thomas improve in his second match, which bodes well for next week. Gabe Moses went 0-2 at Cashmere, as well, in the 145 bracket.

No matches are scheduled this week with the Christmas holiday.

Tuesday, Dec. 30, the Raiders will host 12 teams for the Powerhouse Tournament. The Powerhouse will be at the Grand Coulee gym in the former middle school, due to ongoing roof repairs at the Lake Roosevelt gym. Noxon/Arlee of Montana, Okanogan, Omak, Wilbur-Creston-Keller, Rainier, Almira/Coulee-Hartline, Warden, Brewster, Oroville, Newport, Selkirk, and Republic have been invited to take part in the tourney. Wrestling will start at 10 a.m.