The Cheney High wrestling team brought home medals from the Dec. 17 Cadet Classic in Yakima.
Boedy Taylor took second in the 182-pound bracket after he lost to Eisenhower’s Raul Jimenez, 7-1, in the championship round. On his way to the finals, Taylor defeated Wenatchee’s Carl Brandt, 2-0, and Zillah’s Chase Pidgeon, 5-3.
Zack Nguyen (138) and Josh Baker (220) took third in their divisions.
Nguyen pinned Eastmont’s Thomas Jones and Granger’s Chuco Cisneros to reach the semifinals where Davis’ John Sowers pinned him. He defeated Eisenhower’s Christian Alonso, 8-5, in the third-place match.
After a first-round bye, Baker was pinned by Toppenish’s Isaic Anaya in their quarterfinal match. Baker tore through the consolation bracket, pinning Wapato’s Miguel Ortiz, Ephrata’s Elias Guevana and Sunnyside’s Daniel Huizar.
“Baker needs to be at 220,” head coach Brad Rasmussen said. Baker had wrestled at 285 in the Deer Park Invitational and West Valley Wrestle-Rama. “He can move with the 220 guys and the tournament was a good chance to see him wrestle (in that weight class).”
Alan Coumbs (170) earned his first high school medal after he took fifth in his division. Coumbs pinned West Valley-Yakima’s Wyatt Bronkhorst before he lost to Zillah’s Issac Vargas in the quarterfinals. He defeated Bronkhorst’s teammate, Kaidin Rathburn, 4-0, and Eastmont’s Josh Hill, 11-4, before Eisenhower’s Cole Landrini pinned him in the third-place match.
“Alan is the man,” Rasmussen said of Coumbs’ performance. “He won more matches at the tournament than he had in the last two years.”
Francisco Martinez (145) went 1-2 before he was eliminated in the consolation round of his division. As a team Cheney finished 12th out of 18 teams with 66 points.
“I was happy with how we wrestled,” Rasmussen said. “To come away with four placers in the tournament is pretty good. We have stuff we need to work on, but I thought we did well.”
Cheney faced Pullman in their first Great Northern League dual of the season, Dec. 20. The match was rescheduled from Dec. 15 because of weather and road conditions. The Greyhounds came into the match with nonleague wins over Northeast A League’s Lakeside and Medical Lake.
The Blackhawks travel to Central Valley today (Dec. 22) to compete in the Tri County Wrestling tournament. Rasmussen said the tournament is a good opportunity for his team to “get a ton of matches” under their belts.
“We’ll take Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 24-25) off for Christmas, then get back at it,” Rasmussen said. “There will be a lot of wrestling over the next couple of weeks and lots of chances to get better.”
Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].
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