YAKIMA — The Ephrata boys wrestling team finished sixth with 102.5 points and four wrestlers earned medals at the Davis Invite on Saturday, Dec. 6 at AC Davis High School in Yakima.

Wapato won the team title with 246 points, Ellensburg (184.5) finished second followed by Sunnyside (149.5), Eastmont (129) and Prairie (114) rounding out the top five.

Freshmen Louden Leenhouts, wrestling at 106, and Colt Staples (175) led the way for the Tigers, each reaching championship finals before falling to Wapato grapplers.

"Standout performances by Louden Leenhouts at 106 making the finals and Colt Staples, also a finalist," head coach Joe Knox said.

Ephrata also got third-place individual finishes from Nathan Sandoval (126) and Payton Woods (215), who each compiled 5-1 records for the day.

After a first-round bye, Leenhouts registered a 17-2, third-period technical fall over Isaac Panattoni of Ellensburg in the quarterfinals, then pinned Wapato's Rey Andrade Torres in the third period of the semifinals. In the title match, Jacob Gambito of Wapato ended Leenhouts' run with a 20-3 technical fall at the 5:29 mark of the third period.

Staples pinned his first two opponents – Eastmont's Aiden Phillips and Cle Elum-Roslyn's Connan Hyatt – then scored an 11-5 decision over Jack Bohlke of Naches Valley in the semifinals. But in the championship match, Wapato's Raul Sanchez III worked a first-period pin over Staples to claim the title.

At 126, Sandoval started with a second-period pin of Martin Lopez of Davis, but lost his next match by pin against Josue Estrada of Ellensburg. He rallied from that setback with a 17-1 technical fall win over Aiden Sanchez of East Valley, a 7-0 decision over Reid Moreland of Ellensburg, and finished by winning an injury-default decision over Remington Hewes of Prairie High School while leading 9-1.

After dropping an opening-round 7-2 decision to Ellensburg's Sealy Graham, Woods went on to win five consecutive matches: pinning Samuel Prado Villegas of West Valley (Yakima) and Hudson Taylor of Ellensburg, scoring a 7-2 decision over Jaime Barajas of Davis, picking up of forfeit win, then earning a 11-0 major decision against Wapato's Josiah Gutierres in the final bronze medal round.

Also competing for Ephrata were Jose Cervantes (113), Kylan Lus (132), Mike Ramirez (138), Isaac Barajas (144), Noah Castillo (157), Adrian Negrete (165), Austin Smith (190) and Daron Hernandez (285). Smith and Hernandez each reached the quarterfinals and Ramirez reached the semis, before dropping to the consolation bracket.

The Tigers will host Ellensburg – which finished second at the Davis Invite – this Thursday in CWAC action.

"They are really good," Knox said of the Bulldogs. "It's going to be a challenging outing."

Ephrata then travels to the Connell Invitational on Saturday.

GRANDVIEW — Results from Ephrata’s Dec. 4 three-team meet versus Prosser and host Grandview contained scoring errors and are being recalculated. Updated results were not available at publication time.