TACOMA - Approximately 1,200 high school wrestlers walked through the doors at the 2012 Mat Classic XXIV state tournament in the Tacoma Dome Friday morning. All hoping their dreams of becoming a state champion would come true.

Half of those hopes were dashed after the opening round matches as the winners moved on and the losers dropped into the consolation brackets. The best they could hope for was a third place finish.

But for those moving on, the dream was still alive.

The Moses Lake Chiefs wrestlers found themselves on both sides of the coin as  the team finished 10th (52 points), and had just three wrestlers  medaled over the two day event.

"We always hope to do better," coach Jamie Wise said. "But with the numbers we had, I thought we did well."

Fernando Leyva (106) won his first match, beating Daniel Rice from Union 2-1 to advance to a Saturday morning match against Spenser Schroeder from Gram-Kapowsin. Leyva lost the match 11-9 in overtime to drop down into the consolation bracket to face David Garcia from Kamikan for the right to wrestle for third place. Unfortunately he lost the battle 10-6. He did however, come back to beat Kenny Hobbs from Kentridge 8-5 to claim fifth place.

Freshman Chase Clasen (113) found the going rough on his first trip to state. He lost his first round match to Joshua Heitzman from Kamiakin by fall (5:00) to drop into the consolation bracket. He lost his next match to Joseph Demattreo from Skyline 12-6 and was bounced out of the tournament.

Beau Gleed (120) won his initial match against Tristan Steciw from Skyline by fall (3:29) to move on to a Saturday morning match with Taylor Salzberg from Gram-Kapowsin.

Gleed lost the contest 5-0 and dropped into the consolation bracket to face Blake Beard of Central Valley for the right to wrestle for third place. He beat Beard 1-0 to set up a showdown with Cruz Velasquez from Tahoma High School. Gleed won the match 7-4 to claim third place and bring home some hardware for Moses Lake.

"Beau had an excellent finish, after the heartbreaking loss in the semi-finl round," Wise said. "I was very proud of him to be able to wrestle under that kind of pressure and come back and finish third."

Hayden Wise (126) lost a hard fought first round match on his inaugural trip to the Mat Classic as a state qualifier to Dalton Meyers from Kentwood, 3-0.

That dropped him into the consolation bracket to face Zach Garcia from Woodinville.

He beat Garcia 4-1 then matched up with Killian Page from Marysville-Pilchuck, but lost 6-4 and was eliminated from the competition.

"We were a little disappointed Hayden and Chase didn't win one more match to place," Wise said. "Fernando got into a bit of trouble against the Kamiakin kid ... took some chances and ended up losing out on his bid to medal higher, but he did come back to place fifth."

Senior Nico Moreno (152), who had lost only one match all season, was the brightest star for the Chiefs as he brought home the lone state championship for Moses Lake.

Moreno found little resistance thorough his first three matches He beat Austin Dunn from Evergreen High School 17-2 to move on to day two of the tournament. Saturday afternoon he matched up with Jojo Reynolds of Union and took him to school, 11-4 for the right to wrestle Tyler Mclean from Mead. Moreno got off to a slow start in the final round match up, but came  on strong to beat Reynolds 6-3 and was crowned the 2012 champion in his weight class.

"Nico hand an outstanding tournament ... really wrestled well," Wise said. "He got a little nervous in the final round as he's been there before, but never won, so I was very proud of the way he handled the pressure. A lot of kids wouldn't have been able to that and produce the same results."