Mavericks shine on the road
MIKE MAYNARD | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 months, 2 weeks AGO
Eli Anderson, left, faces off with his opponent during their Eastmont duel. The Mavericks were victorious over the West Valley Rams 54-24 on Wednesday.
MIKE MAYNARD/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The Mavs’ Duane Zamora, top, controls his opponent on the mat during their match against Eastmont. Zamora was victorious via a 5-3 decision.
The Mavs’ Zachy Villasenor, right, grapples with his Eastmont opponent earlier this season. Head Coach Jose Tanguma said his wrestlers improved in their match against West Valley Wednesday.
The Mavs’ River Hutchinson, right, goes to grapple with his opponent. Head Coach Jose Tanguma said he wants his wrestlers to start peaking in the postseason.
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Mavericks (2-0) are off to a strong start to their season after defeating the West Valley Rams 54-24 Tuesday. Head Coach Jose Tanguma said he was glad to see his wrestlers make improvements.
“(They) are developing pretty well for the season. We got a bunch of pins and that's one of the main talks we had with the (them), like we got to be able to go out there and finish our opponent quickly. A lot of the kids ended up doing that,” Tanguma said.
The Mavericks jumped out to an early 24-0 lead that allowed them to take a strong hold of the momentum. Tanguma said this allowed them to set the tone. The Rams earned four wins, all of which were pinfalls. However, it was not enough as Moses Lake continued to build their lead and eventually secure the overall win.
“It sets the momentum of the match. The (wrestlers) get fired up. They see their teammates doing well; they're fired up to go out there and wrestle and do the same thing,” Coach said.
Pinfall victories by Darien Prescott, Ian Garza Owen Martel and a forfeit win for Jose Villafana allowed the Mavericks to take a commanding 24-0 lead over the Rams. Tanguma complimented Garza’s performance. He pointed to his mat control to earn points for them before earning the pinfall.
“He went out there and took control of the match right away, got a quick takedown, and after that, he was just getting some near falls and a couple more takedowns. He just took control of the match and just controlled the whole pace the whole time until you got the pin,” he said.
West Valley got on the board after a pinfall win. However, Zachy Villasenor earned a pinfall win, and Duane Zamora earned a competitive win via a 5-3 decision to help them increase their lead.
Zamora’s match came against another ranked wrestler Orlando Garcia, which presented him a tough challenge early in the season. Tanguma was pleased to see him rise to the occasion against a tough opponent like Garcia.
“Duane is currently ranked sixth in the state, and his opponent was ranked tenth in the state, and they had a good match. Duane was a more aggressive wrestler to get the take down and win the match,” Tanguma said.
West Valley earned two more pinfall victories and a forfeit to climb to 24 points, but Moses Lake kept stacking pinfalls of their own to secure the 54-24 match win. Tanguma said some of the Rams’ wins could be attributed to differing experience levels.
A few of those losses were freshman wrestlers facing upper classmen or wrestlers with more experience on the mat. While wins are what they always strive for, Tanguma was more focused on getting these wrestlers valuable mat experience. As long as they are learning from these moments, that’s what is important, he said.
“I've talked to our freshman class, ‘You guys are going to get put onto the spot to fill some weights where you guys need to step up.’ I know they're struggling right now, but the main picture is the postseason. I tell them to take every match as a lesson, you're just going to keep getting better,” he said.
As they move further into the season, Tanguma is solely focused on his wrestlers improving each match. No matter the outcome, if they can take a learning experience from it, their work will pay off in the long run.
This weekend they head to North Idaho College for a two-day tournament. Tanguma said it is one of the tougher competitions in the Pacific Northwest and will be a valuable experience for his wrestlers.
“The atmosphere of this tournament is amazing. You're going to see a lot of great matches and battles out there and just take the freshman kids out there to experience this. When they're seniors, they’ll know what to expect from this tournament, and they'll succeed when they're older,” Coach said.
From there, they will have a small break due to the holiday. Tanguma said this time of the season is the most important for them as they spend more time working on technique, one on one coaching and team bonding.
This time period serves as a turning point into finishing the rest of the season strong. Coach said his goal is to have his wrestler's performance peak as the postseason begins. After their break, they travel to compete against Eastmont on Dec. 30 at 9 a.m.
As school starts back up in January, the intensity is going to pick up, he said.
“We're at the pace where now our practices are going to be more intense. It's going to be longer match times that we do just to get our conditioning up. The way we set up our practice schedule is we're setting them up to start peaking exactly during postseason,” Tanguma said.
MATCH RESULTS
106: Darien Prescott (Moses Lake) over Oscar Penaloza (West Valley), Fall 2:14
113: Jose Villafana (Moses Lake), Forfeit
120: Ian Garza (Moses Lake) over Lucas Dove-Montes (West Valley), Fall 4:32
126: Owen Martel (Moses Lake) over Martin Barragan (West Valley), Fall 3:19
132: Paul Smith (West Valley) over Samuel Janke (Moses Lake), Fall 3:45
138: Zachy Villasenor (Moses Lake) over Erza Gonzalez (West Valley)
144: Duane Zamora (Moses Lake) over Orlando Garcia (West Valley), Decision 5-3
150: Jacob Pomeroy (West Valley) over Ryan Martinez (Moses Lake), Fall 1:45
157: Ian Anderson (Moses Lake) over Emil Engler (West Valley), Decision 8-2
165: Grant Bright (West Valley) over River Hutchinson (Moses Lake), Fall 4:51
175: Connor Brosnahan (Moses Lake) over Thaidyn Erickson (West Valley), Fall 5:01
190: Kalub Lamb (West Valley), Forfeit
215: Eli Anderson (Moses Lake) over Santos Kaneta (West Valley), Fall 1:40
285: Cristian Ramos (Moses Lake) over Brody Jacobs (West Valley), Fall 3:45
The Mavs’ Duane Zamora, top, controls his opponent on the mat during their match against Eastmont. Zamora was victorious via a 5-3 decision.
The Mavs’ Zachy Villasenor, right, grapples with his Eastmont opponent earlier this season. Head Coach Jose Tanguma said his wrestlers improved in their match against West Valley Wednesday.
The Mavs’ River Hutchinson, right, goes to grapple with his opponent. Head Coach Jose Tanguma said he wants his wrestlers to start peaking in the postseason.ARTICLES BY MIKE MAYNARD
Correia reflects on making All-State team
COULEE CITY — Multiple basin athletes qualified to play in the All-State Baseball Series from June 27-28 in Yakima, with Almira/Coulee-Hartline graduate, Caden Correia being one of them. Correia said he was initially selected for a feeder game ahead of his state qualification. “I was at practice one day, and my head coach (Hunter Lee) came up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, you got selected for an All State feeder game,’” said Correia. “I actually got invited to two, the Central Washington one and the Spokane one.” Correia said he decided to go with the Spokane feeder game since it was taking place at Avista Stadium and he had a desire to compete at that venue. Once he played there, Correia was informed that he was also selected to play for Team Baker in the All State games, an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.
Quincy standout ‘Duckie’ Workinger returns home to lead Vikings womens wrestling
MOSES LAKE — Shannon “Duckie” Workinger was named the new head coach of women’s wrestling at Big Bend Community College on June 18, bringing one of the Basin’s own back to help build the next generation of women’s wrestlers. “I'm super excited,” Workinger said. “I spent some time wrestling at different places, and it feels really good to be able to come back to the community that I was born in and really establish more connections here and build on the ones that I already have, and just help grow our Basin into a great wrestling (community), even better than it already is, because we have some good wrestlers that come from here.”
ACH wrestlers earn All-American honors at women’s national duals
COULEE CITY — Karis Butler and Kyanna Garza from Almira/Coulee-Hartline earned All-American status after a strong showing in the 2026 Women’s National Duals in Westfield, Indiana that ran from June 16-20. “It feels really good,” Karis said. “It was very surprising last year when I got on here, and then this year they were like, ‘You can go to whatever weight class you want,’ and it made me feel very recognized for the hard work I've put in.” Wrestlers competed in freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman throughout the four-day tournament. Karis competed in both earning a 7-1 record in freestyle and 4-3 in Greco-Roman. Throughout her path in the tournament, she noted a lot of growth as a wrestler came out of it.