Against tough competition, Raider wrestlers took fifth place at a Cashmere tournament Dec. 21. Lake Roosevelt placed higher than Reardan, Cascade (Leavenworth), and Omak. It was sweet revenge for the Raiders, who had lost a dual meet with Omak four days earlier.

That dual at home ended with the final score of Omak 54-LR 24. The Raiders had to forfeit to the Pioneers at six weights, giving them many easy points. Of the 11 matches wrestled against the Pioneers, the Raiders won five.

Alexia Hanway, at 112 pounds, won both her matches against Shyanne Steele and Randi Sam by pins.

James Monaghan (126) pinned his opponent in a match in which he was the dominant force the entire time.

Oscar Pakootas won the 132-pound category by taking his time to find the right position to place the winning move.

Octavio Alejandre wrestled Michael Quezada, the Omak 220 pounder, as their 285 did not wrestle. Quezada was intimidated by Alejandre and did not want to get close enough for Alejandre put a move on him. Alejandre became flustered and was charged with roughing when he placed a good palm hit on Quezada. Finally Quezada tried to put a move on Alejandre who then proceeded to dominate the match, winning by pin.

“We seem to wrestle better in a tournament format rather than a dual,” Head Coach Steve Hood said, “mostly because we don’t have the team members to dual with another squad weight for weight.”

Hood said that at the B level, most teams do not dual. “They instead do mix and matches with three or more teams and tournaments,” he explained.

At Cashmere, with only seven wrestlers competing in the tourney and one more wrestling in a exhibition match, LR was one of the smallest squads in attendance.

The bus was cold even with all the heaters set on full blast.

“Reminded me of winter campouts in the Scouts when I was a kid,” Hood said with a laugh.

At 120, James Monaghan swept the field. He defeated Garcia of Quincy and Reyes of Chelan. In the championship match, Monaghan met Weber of Kittitas who fought hard, but Monaghan came away with the victory and the tourney championship, winning 11-4.

“James made a huge improvement on how he handles matches,” Hood noted.

Coltin Williams came away with second place at 126 for the Raiders. Williams defeated Thompson of Cashmere and the other Reyes of Chelan before facing Marin of Kittitas. Marin had finished fourth at State B at 126 last year, behind Oscar Pakootas. Williams did not back down from the fight. In the end, Marin was able to defeat Williams to take first.

Pakootas was successful in his first two matches of the day, defeating Keith of Medical Lake and Guzman of Quincy by pins. In the championship match, Pakootas faced Gallegos of Kittitas, who put on more moves and won 9-2. Pakootas finished second for the day.

At 138, Gabe Moses was 2-2 on the day, beating Peterson of Medical Lake and Wallace of Quincy by pins.

Teddy Sharr could have wrestled for fifth or sixth at Cashmere, but the other coaches decided to hurry up the tournament and head home by deleting the those matches. Frustrated, LR coaches Hood and Largent both argued for the matches. “Call us wrestling junkies, but we are here to wrestle, not to hurry up and go home,” Hood said.

Kodie Horn swept the field at 152 taking first.

Alejandre won his first match. In his second, against Montes of Chelan (fourth last year in State 1A), he lost by the slimmest of margins, 2-1 after four overtimes. Alejandre did not stay down for long as he came back and won the rest of his matches by pins to take home third at 285.

Raider wrestling on Saturday competed in the Powerhouse Tourney at Gailord Nelson Gym. Over 10 teams participated from around the region and as far away as Rainier and Noxon, Mont.

LR hoped to field a larger squad at the tourney as some who were short on practices for Cashmere would be eligible for the home tourney.

On Jan. 4, the Raider wrestling squad travels south to Warden.

for the Warden Tournament. There they will face off against another round of hard competition from the 1A ranks and from the bigger Yakima Valley, Tri-Cities schools. Matches are at Warden High School starting at 10 a.m.