Two Broncos advance to state wrestling

Keanu Niezwaag and Grayson Morris have run the tournament gauntlet in wrestling and have enjoyed enough success to earn a trip to the WIAA Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome this weekend.

Both finished fourth at the Eastern Washington B Regional Wrestling Tournament at Kittitas last weekend.

Niezwaag, wrestling at 138 pounds, opened with a bye in the first round before meeting Oscar Roa of Brewster in a quarter final match. Niezwaag posted a win by pin at 1:30.

The win set up a semi final match with Orrin Gross of Lake Roosevelt. The match remained tight from the beginning, with Niezwaag trailing 0-2 when he was pinned at 3:58 into the match.

Dropping into the consolation rounds, Niezwaag met up with Warden’s Jesus Landeros.

Niezwaag controlled the entire match, as he had against Landerson during the district tournament a week earlier. He defeated Landeros 6-0.

In the battle for third or fourth place, Niezwaag found himself pitted against a home crowd favorite in Jon Walling of Kittitas.

“He wrestled the kid before. We thought we could take him down,” said head coach Jason Hilzer. “Keanu lost on his feet really bad last time. In this match, we thought he had a take-down, but the referee said he stepped on the line.”

At that point in the match the score was locked at 0-0. Walling eventually one 6-3.

Wrestling at 220 pounds, Morris opened with a win by pin against Colt Jack of Liberty Bell. He recorded a pin in 27 seconds.

In his quarterfinal match, Morris found himself battling with Nate Brownlee of Kittitas. He won that match with a pin at 5:50, advancing to the semi-final match.

There he met Jace Malek of Reardan, eventually losing the match.

In the consolation round, Morris wrestled Rudy Martinez of Warden and won with a 9-2 decision. He finished the tournament with a battle against Mike Wymore of Pomeroy for third or fourth place.

In the first two periods, Morris dominated the match. About 10 seconds into the third period Wymore caught him off balance and quickly pinned Morris.

Hilzer said the two wrestlers need to spend their practice week on their feet.

“They need to be better on their feet to have confidence they need to take somebody down,” He said. “Both of them are pretty good on the mat. They just need to get better on their feet. At this stage of the game you have to be able to take somebody down in order to win.”