The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

RITZVILLE – The Waitsburg Cardinals hit the mats in Ritzville for a Jan. 7 league meet.

Carlos Norris (113) won his match against Garrett Phillips (Colfax) with a technical fall in 1:54.

"Carlos is looking very strong this year. He is wrestling very smart and is continuing to learn the technical aspect of the sport," Coach Lanny Adams said.

Eighth-grader, David Lewis (120) lost to Joey Rogers (Gar-Pal) after being pinned in :44.

"David is still learning to be more aggressive on the mat. I think once he gains his self-confidence we'll start seeing different results," Adams said.

David Just (138) came out aggressively against Riley Nikkola (Reardan) and dominated the match to win by pin in 2:33. Just then won against Nate Keiffer (Reardan) by a 17-11 decision in what Coach Adams called a very exciting match.

Dejay Lalka (138) fell to Alex Whitman (Ritzville) in :25.

"Dejay (who wrestles with one leg) is still working on his balance and not getting caught on his side. He is continuing to improve his game each time he gets on the mat," Adams said.

Ky Adams (145) lost to Keiffer by fall in 5:30 in round three after dominating the first two rounds of the match. He lost his second match to Justis Anderson (Reardan) by 7-6 decision in what Adams called the most exciting match of the evening, with both wrestlers working hard for every point.

Devin Newman (145) failed to get on the offense and dropped his first match in a pin by Colton Kuykendall in :28. In a hard-fought second match, Newman fell to Nikkola in 2:41.

"Devin was trying some new moves that we had worked on. Even though he didn't win this match, I think he had some 'wins' as he worked on the new moves. When he gets them down, they will work for him," Adams said.

Joe Adams (160) controlled his first match against Mason Payne (Reardan) from the beginning and won with a 2:42 pin. He lost his second match to Havin Heytvelt (Pomeroy) by a 12-1 decision.

Chiawana JV Dual Tournament

The Cardinals traveled to Kennewick on Sat., Jan. 9, where they were paired with Pomeroy and the Pirate/Cardinal team walked away with the second place team trophy at the Chiawana JV Dual tournament. Two wrestlers from Sunnyside, one from Kamiakin, and two from Chiawana were included on the roster to fill all the weight classes.

Competing teams included Kamiakin, Rogers (Spokane), Eisenhower, Sunnyside, Wahluke, richland, and Chiawana. Waitsburg's Joe Larue (152) was placed with the Wahluke team and went 2-3 for the day.

Joe Adams (170) went a perfect 5-0, with three pins and two wins by decision. Carlos Norris (113) forfeited his first match, but won the next four, taking round 5 by injury default. David Just (138), Ky Adams (145)were undefeated through their first four rounds but dropped their final rounds of the day. Tyler Hoffman (285) won rounds one through three, won round four in a forfeit and lost round five.

Pomeroy's Havin Heytvelt (160), who finished fourth at state last year, won all five of his matches.

"There was a lot of great wrestling at this competition. Waitsburg and Pomeroy worked well together. If you would have asked me at the beginning of the day if I thought that we had a chance to be in the finals, I would have answered,'No.' It was a fun day of wrestling," said Coach Adams.

Coach Adams named Joe Adams as wrestler of the week.

"Joe dropped to 160 pounds this week. He wrestled a couple of hard matches last Tuesday at Ritzville and wrestled extremely smart and hard today," Adams said, following the tournament.