Raider wrestlers open season well in Okanogan

Raider wrestlers had their first events of the season last week, warming up with the Okanogan Jamboree, then participating in the 27th Annual Davenport Invitational, where the Raiders made a point with four first-placers and one third placer.

Lake Roosevelt won 21 out of 32 matches wrestled at the jamboree on Nov. 29.

Head Coach Steve Hood said the jamboree was, "finally a chance to get out of your own room and compete a little bit against people from other teams. You're never really sure how prepared you are, because you're wrestling your own people. We felt like we had a very good night. A number of those losses were really close ones. The main thing is they wrestled up to their ability."

In Davenport on Dec. 2, the Raiders team of eight wrestlers earned 118 points, enough for second place among the 14 teams in attendance. Reardan took first with 191.5 points and about double the number of wrestlers as LR.

"Davenport has been our opening tournament for 20 years," Hood noted. "The competition level is good for this time of year. We competed well, able to put four in the finals and win all four of them."

Jon Shelley pinned Josh Werner of Freeman in one minute, 40 seconds before pinning Erick Espino of Pateros in only 44 seconds to take first in the 120-pound weight class.

Kaleb Horn, wrestling at 138, pinned Nathan Edgar of Kittitas in four minutes, then beat Tanner Smith of Freeman in 26 seconds, then Graham Rocha of Northwest Christian in 3:45 to take first.

"Kaleb pinned his way to the championship, not that he didn't have competition," Hood said. "A couple matches he had real competition, then he threw them to their back and pinned them."

Horn said that Freeman's Smith was his toughest of the matches. "He was really strong; I wasn't really used to wrestling 138."

Tony Nichols defeated Colby Guzman, from Oroville, by a 2-0 decision. "Only takes one to win," Hood said. Nichols then pinned Ty Walker in 1:11 before defeating Reardan's Perryman 9-3 to take first at 152.

Sherwin Vargas pinned Delcour from Freeman in 3:20, then pinned Colton Cotter from Reardan in 2:15 to take first in the 220 division.

Wrestling at 113, Everett Schmidt defeated Jared Kimball of Liberty Bell by major decision, 13-4, before losing to Cody Field of Oroville, placing third.

Freshman Dylan Wiles lost his two matches, narrowly losing 6-5 against Ocampo from Oroville. "He was ahead 5-4, but the other guy scored late in the match," Hood said. "That was a good match for him there."

Moses Luevana pinned Jacob Norgarden from Reardan in 37 seconds, but lost his other two matches.

"We had legitimate competition," Hood said, noting that his wrestlers faced off against several state participants and placers from last year. "We were really happy with it. For this time of the season, we wrestled well. We saw plenty of things to work on."

The Raiders compete tonight, Dec. 6, in the LR Mix and Match in Coulee Dam, which starts at 6 p.m.