EPHRATA — The Othello Huskies and Ephrata Tigers had a close matchup Tuesday evening with the Huskies taking a 42-39 victory over their Central Washington Athletic Conference rival. 

“Ephrata’s a tough team and I knew that they were coming in with most of their full lineup,” said Huskies Head Coach Sammy Rocha. “They’re super tough in the middleweights and in their heavyweights and I kind of knew we were going to have our hands full.” 

The flu and injuries hit the Othello team taking out three starters from the lineup before the meet. Rocha said the Huskies had to have Celeste Cruz, Alexandra Estrada Rangel and Addison Vasquez get bumped up a weight class to fill out the proper slots because of this, but the girls all responded well. 

“It was because of those girls that we came away with a victory because we probably wouldn’t have won if we didn’t make that change,” he said. 

Rocha said the girls were experienced enough to be prepared for situations such as this, and this flexibility is something shown across the entire team. Whether it is finding better footing or focusing on neutral positions, the Huskies are constantly finding new areas to improve their technique after every match, he said. 

“It’s just kind of a testament of what our coaches are doing and how our wrestlers are buying in to the season because we’re getting hurt a lot, I’m sure just like everybody else, but I’ve got that second or third girl who’s in that depth chart just ready to go,” said Rocha. 

Rocha said the depth and competitive nature of the Huskies is where they find the most success each season. As they look toward their next matchup, they will take what they learned from their competition in Ephrata to improve their skills as they head toward the postseason and look to return some key starters to the roster. 

“Everybody now is starting to get healthy and we’re starting to get our full squad back and that’s something we haven’t seen all year,” he said. 

Tigers Head Coach Raul Tejeda said the Ephrata team had also been preparing for a tough competition against Othello and that the team was still pretty happy with how close the competition was in the end. With that in mind, the team has some areas the coach wants them to improve on as they head down the next stretch of the season. 

“We got into some positions that we’ve been working on, and we kind of dropped the ball in a few of those,” said Tejeda.  “It was kind of an eye opener that we just got to go back and keep working at them.” 

He said that it was great seeing how hard the girls fought in each of their matches and was a testament to how the program has been growing. During Tuesday’s matchup, there were a few freshmen who filled in on the lineup and earned victories for the team. Tejeda credited that to the hard work of the seniors leaving a good impression on the younger girls. 

As the Tigers continue in their season, Tejeda said coming off a loss will be an eye-opener for the team as they now have new motivation to work hard and strive to be better for each upcoming competition.  

“It’s going pretty good, we have some young girls filling in those little weight classes, and at first it was tough but seeing (Tuesday) they’re getting better,” said the Tigers coach. 

The Tigers and Huskies are headed to Kelso High School Friday at 3 p.m. to compete in one of the state’s largest wrestling tournaments. 

Results: 

100: Betsy Policarpio (OTHL) over Peighton Black (EPHT) 0-6 

105: Chenille Garcia (EPHT) over Gaby Pruneda (OTHL) 6-0 

110: Grayce Mendez (OTHL) over Beyonce Huerta Tapia (EPHT) 0-6 

115: Brooklyn Hillman (OTHL) over Natali Abundiz (EPHT) 0-6 

120: Yaritzi Flores (OTHL) over Devanae Bazan (EPHT) 0-6 

125: Celeste Cruz (OTHL) over Iris Downs (EPHT) 0-6 

130: Alexandra Estrada Rangel (EPHT) over Ezmee Perez (OTHL) 6-0 

135: Addison Vasquez (EPHT) over Victoria Deleon (OTHL) 6-0 

140: Addie Russell (OTHL) over Kashlynn Cobb (EPHT) 0-6

145: Kallee Rayn Castillo (EPHT) over Miriam Carcia (OTHL) 3-0 

155: Adylene Sanchez (EPHT) over Karla Guzman (OTHL) 6-0 

170: Lucy Gilbert (OTHL) over Gabbie Grace Bafus (EPHT) 6-0 

190: Tessa Hausken (EPHT) over Anai Galvez (OTHL) 6-0 

235: Carolina Monico (EPHT) win by forfeit 

    Ephrata’s Adylene Sanchez works to pin Othello’s Karla Guzman during Tuesday’s 155-lb match.
  

    In the 105-lb round Tuesday evening, Chenille Garcia from Ephrata, top, works to flip over Gaby Pruneda from Othello, bottom.
  

    Tigers wrestler Natali Abundiz, top, works to get in a good position to take down Othello wrestler Brooklyn Hillman, bottom, as she holds strong during the 115-lb matchup.