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The Lake Roosevelt Raider wrestlers headed south to Coulee City last Wednesday for the Banks Lake Brawl, where each of the seven Raiders placed.

Kaleb Horn, Jon Shelley, Tony Nichols, and Ida Sue all received first-place spots. Ryan Moon and Steven Flowers each took second place in their weight categories, and Gabe Moses took third.

After a bye-round, Horn won first place in the 120-pound division by defeating two Hanford boys. Horn won by technical fall, 16-1, against Dax Cummings, then beat Breaden Nalle 9-2.

Shelley took first place at 126. After defeating Hanford’s Carter Murphey, Shelley faced off against Almira-Coulee-Hartline’s Wyatt Zielinski, who had placed fifth in state last year. A reversal and a near fall in the first period gave Shelley five points, enough to win the match, 5-4.

“Anyone who has gone to state or placed at state is a higher level wrestler, so if you beat one of them it’s great,” Raider Head Coach Steve Hood said.

Nichols, after a bye-round, dominated Davenport’s Alex Diviney, winning 19-4 with a series of takedowns, reversals, and near falls. Nichols then won 3-1 against Republic-Curlew’s Gunner Hildebrandt to get the first-place spot at 145.

Moon got second place and Gabe Moses third in the busy 138 division. Moon, tied 8-8 with Ephrata’s Christopher Steward, got a takedown in overtime to win 10-8. Moon then lost to Republic-Curlew’s JJ Walker.

Moses, after defeating Ephrata’s Will Anderson 11-0, narrowly lost to Republic-Curlew’s Danny Phillips 4-3. A first-period takedown gave Moses the two points needed to defeat Ephrata’s Jayden Lopez. Then Moses defeated Davenport’s Justin Chapman to secure the third-place spot.

In the 195 division, Flowers defeated Republic-Curlew’s Damon Hoyt with a first-period takedown and near fall, winning the match 5-0. An escape and a takedown was enough to defeat Ephrata’s Jeremy Reyes 3-2. But Flowers lost 4-0 to Luke Peebles of Kittitas, a state participant last year. Flowers took second place in the division.

Freshman Ida Sue defeated Lind-Ritzville’s Chelsey Waters twice, winning 2-0 with a takedown and 4-1 with a takedown and a reversal to secure first place.

“Ida works hard in practice and is improving every day,” Hood said. “It’s not always easy to find matches for her, but we are finding some. It will be interesting to see what she can do in the postseason.”

“The kids we have out are doing really well, they’re working hard and their skill level is continuously improving,” Hood said. “We’re very competitive against other schools and we’ll just keep working toward our post-season goals.”

World champion bull rider and Raider wrestler alum Shane Proctor attended practice the day before the brawl, as well as the event. “Shane was in and showed some of his favorite wrestling techniques, which some of our guys used on Wednesday,” Hood noted.

The Raider wrestlers are hosting their 14th annual Powerhouse Tournament today, starting at 10 a.m. in the Raider gym in Coulee Dam.