Wrestlers ready for districts after a busy week

The Lake Roosevelt Raider wrestlers had a busy week last week, wrestling in three separate events: the Wilbur-Creston-Keller mixer, a mix & match in Pateros, and another in Oroville on Saturday. From here, the wrestlers move on to the district/subregional tournaments.

Last Tuesday Raider wrestlers Steven Flowers, Taylor Circle, Kaleb Horn, Jon Shelly, Ryan Moon, Tony Nichols and Ida Sue traveled to Wilbur for their mixer to compete with wrestlers from Wilbur-Creston-Keller, Oroville, and Selkirk.

“We had to contend with some technique that we hadn’t seen,” said Raider Head Coach Steve Hood. “Selkirk had a little different style than what we’ve seen all season long so it was a good outing. Our results weren’t quite what we wanted but the experience we got from it is what we needed.”

On Wednesday, three Raiders — Circle, Moon and Sue — traveled to Pateros to compete against wrestlers from Pateros, Chelan, Eastmont, and Oroville. The coach explained the absent wrestlers on the LR team had quite a few more matches, so it was a chance for this trio to gain more experience. Sue won two and lost one, Circle went 2-1, and Moon went 1-2.

The team traveled to the league’s mix & match Saturday in Oroville, where all six teams in the Central Washington 2B league competed.

The event was an opportunity for wrestlers to have new match-ups with opponents in their weight class whom they hadn’t previously faced. The results of the matches determined the seeding for the upcoming district/sub-regional tournaments.

In the 113-pound class, LR’s Horn lost to Dawson Bretz of Tonasket but defeated Jed McMillian of Liberty Bell. At 120, Shelly lost to Devin Walton of Tonasket but defeated Oroville’s Mike Lewis. Also at 120, Circle lost to Rellon Bretz from Tonasket, then to Walton. At 138, Moon defeated Tanner White of Liberty Bell, lost to Vance Frazier of Tonasket, then won against Tudor C. Also at 138, Nichols lost to Fraizer, but defeated White. And Flowers, at 195, defeated Isaac Gomez from Tonasket.

“We had some tough matches last week that really showed our strengths and weaknesses,” Hood said. “We’re working on capitalizing on both of those.”

In the upcoming district/sub-regional tournaments (district boys, sub-regional girls), Horn is seeded second in the 113 division, Shelly third and Circle fourth at 120, Nichols second and Moon fourth at 138, Flowers second at 195, and Sue seeded third in the girls’ 145 division.

With the regular season over, the wrestlers seasonal win-loss records are: Horn 30-6, Circle 7-7, Shelly 21-11, Moon 5-15, Nichols 31-4, Flowers 19-10, and Sue 15-8.

The boys’ district tournament will be held in Liberty Bell at 10 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 4. The girls’ sub-regional will be held in Warden the same time and date.