‘Cat grapplers do well in tournament

Published 9:58 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

Wildcat wrestlers Blake Moore and Brad Davis garnered

first-place titles at the Wapato Invitational wrestling tournament last Saturday. With

a technical fall in his first match and a major decision in the finals,

Moore dominated his opponents at 135 pounds to improve his record to

14-3 for the season. At 189 pounds, Davis worked his way into the finals with

a quick first round pin and a hard-fought 5-2 semifinal victory.

Wrestling against a returning tournament champion in Nathan Price of Ephrata

did not deter Davis, as he earned his first- ever tournament victory with a

5-1 decision in the finals to push his season record to 13-3.

Jason Moe and Hiram Tame also earned a spot in the finals, but

both `Cats came up short after six minutes of action. With Ben Veyna unable

to compete at 125 pounds, Moe moved up a weight class and

demonstrated why he will be a major league force

at either 119 or 125 pounds. However in the finals, he was unable to solve

the overall strength of state competitor Troy Stephens of Quincy, loosing

by a 7-1 count. Tame also had a finals match at 140 pounds, but second

seed Kyle Hutchinson from Grandview proved too much for the Mount Si

junior and Tame lost by a 7-3 decision. Not to be outdone, David Crotts

also saw action at 140 pounds, loosing only his first match to Hutchinson but

coming through for a third-place finish.

Chad Mills went 3-1 at 135 pounds, loosing a close and

controversial match in the semifinals, 3-1. Mills ended up third with a close 3-2

victory in the consolation finals. Sean Sexton also gained a third-place

finish at 275 with a quick 45-second pin in the third/fourth match. At 171,

Jed McDaniels put together some fine wrestling to place fourth. In the

first round McDaniel’s lost by a large 14-6 margin to Jose Baez of Selah. In

the consolation finals, he once again met Baez, but this time the match was

close all the way, with McDaniel’s losing only by three points, 7-4.

Andrew Ahmadi again wrestled tough at 112 pounds, going 2-2

for fifth, as did Ryan Smith at 152 and Dylan Seubert at 215. Jordan

Prior and Kasey Robinson at 103 and 160 pounds respectively finished sixth.

Payton Thompson competed at 145, but injury forced him out of

the tournament early on.

Ephrata finished in first place with 160 points, while Mount Si only

had 155. Unfortunately, this was only good enough for fourth place as

Selah had 158.5 and Eisenhower of Yakima had 157.5.