Pirate wrestlers make good showings at Ritzville

RITZVILLE–The Ritzville Invitational was diluted by teams that dropped out last Saturday, scaling back to a five-team match where three Pirate wrestlers–Walker Flynn, Curtis Winona and Braedyn White–went undefeated in three matches. At the first league match at Liberty-Spangle on January 13, Flynn and Winona wrestled well, going undefeated.

Coming up for the Pirate wrestling team is a league match today in Davenport, followed by the Kittitas Invitational on Saturday. A league meet in Colfax will be held January 25.

“Due to a bunch of teams dropping out of the tournament the last minute for various reasons, said Head Coach Ben Slaybaugh, “this tournament was downgraded to a match with five teams.”

“The guys wrestled well with Flynn, Winona, and White winning three apiece,” Slaybaugh said. “They are continuing to hone their skills and work out some kinks but overall are looking pretty good.”

One of the exciting matches was 132-pounder Lane Shawley, who started by losing via decision to M. Egland of Selkirk, then pinning C. Angstrom of Wilbur-Creston, then going to triple overtime before losing by decision to J. Davis of Selkirk.

Wrestling three opponents and winning each was Walker Flynn in the 145-lb. division, Curtis Winona in the 170-lb. class and Braedyn White in the 182-lb. division.

Flynn pinned B. Casey of Tekoa-Rosalia, T. Wood of Almira-Coulee-Hartline and N. Rasmussen of Selkirk for his perfect day; Winona took a decision from J. Pierce of ACH, pinned K. Razo of Tekoa-Rosalia and also L. Eubank of Selkirk for a 3-0 outing; and White had a hat trick over G. Smith of Lind-Ritzville-Sprague, teammate Nick Hastings and A. Reagan of Selkirk.

Hastings won one and lost one, first pinning A. Reagan of Selkirk before facing White on the mat and losing by fall.

Tyler Slaybaugh wrestled one match and lost by decision to L. Strozyk.

The Pirates wrestled “tough and aggressive” at the first league match January 13 in Spangle.

“We had some hard-fought matches and not all of them went our way,” Slaybaugh said.

“Walker Flynn continues to impress as he went 3-0 tonight,” Slaybaugh continued. “Curtis Winona is also looking tough, going 2-0.

“Everyone gained good experience tonight with some tough matches,” he said. “At this point in the season, we are just looking for opportunities to learn and grow so that we can peak come post season.”

132-Shawley: WBF vs T. Xander of Lind-Ritzville-Sprague; WBD vs B. Briggs of Davenport; LBF vs O. Prince of Liberty.

145-Flynn: WBF vs Z. Hoff of Davenport; WBF vs L. Kettner of Liberty; WBF vs S. Feltwell of Liberty.

145-Slaybaugh: LBF vs A. Strobel of Liberty; LBF vs A. Chilson of Reardan; WBF vs Liberty.

170-Winona: WBF vs B. Walbrecht of Reardan; WBF vs C. Holling of Liberty.

182-White: LBD vs S. Schneider of Davenport; WBF vs R. Cash of Davenport; LBD vs J. Cwik of Liberty.