Nguyen takes home Freeman Invite title

History repeated itself on Dec. 30 at Freeman High School when Cheney High wrestler Zack Nguyen won his second Freeman Invitational championship.

Nguyen tore through the 138-pound bracket, defeating West Valley’s Gaje Caro, via a 12-1 majority decision, and pinning Lewis and Clark’s Colby Richardson, University’s Trevor Allgood and Deer Park’s Jake Miller to once again stand at the top of the podium.

Nguyen was not the only Cheney wrestler to take home a medal from the Freeman tournament as Josh Baker (220) finished third in his bracket. After losing to Moscow’s Adam Wallace in the semifinals, Baker pinned Deer Park’s Amir Muriddeen in 21 seconds in the third-place match.

Saul Bautista (120) finished fifth in his division after he pinned Highland’s Ken Cisneros in his final match. Jeremy Blom (113) took sixth after University’s Jacob Lissey pinned him in their bout.

Francisco Martinez (145) and Jackson Knutzen (195) won the consolation brackets of their divisions. Taylor Nguyen (132) and Calvin Edwards were 2-2 before they were eliminated in the consolation finals. Josh Corean (160), Alan Coumbs (170) and Kyle Perrine (182) went 1-2 in the tournament.

“We had some guys lose their first match and make it to the consolation finals,” head coach Brad Rasmussen said. “It was a mental grind for them to come back and finish. We saw good things from the heavyweights to the younger guys. It was fun.”

The Blackhawks finished seventh out of 17 teams with 101 points.

Rasmussen said his team has been focusing on “technique and getting in shape” over Christmas break.

“We’re always looking for improvement and across the board, we’ve been seeing that,” Rasmussen said. “As a team we’re so young and green, but we’re getting better.”

Cheney has a busy week ahead of them. The Blackhawks host Clarkston tonight (Jan. 5) in a Great Northern League dual, then travel to Northeast B League’s Reardan for a nonleague match tomorrow, Jan. 6.

“There are a lot of unknowns with Clarkston, we saw a little bit at the Deer Park tournament, but not much since then,” Rasmussen said. “There’s going to be a lot of chess playing with the weights.

The Blackhawks return home Jan. 7 to host the annual Blackhawk Invitational, then face West Plains rival Medical Lake in a nonleague dual, Jan. 9.

“This month we’ve got 3-4 matches a week,” Rasmussen said. “It’s good for us, we just have to be mentally prepared for it.”

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].