Competing in their first home meet in three years, The Dalles High Riverhawk boys and girls wrestling teams celebrated senior night Dec. 15 in the four-team The Dalles Invitational. Fittingly, it was Riverhawk seniors Aiden Marx and Maise Bandel-Ramirez who had outstanding performances to highlight the event at The Dalles High School’s Kurtz Gym.
The Dalles High Riverhawks wrestling team competed in its third meet of the season, recording six top-five finishes in the Adrian Irwin Memorial Invitational Tournament at Caldera High School in Bend Dec. 17-18.
It’s commonly known in any athletic endeavor that there’s strength in numbers. For The Dalles High Riverhawk wrestling team, that’s certainly the case this season, as they have one of the largest group of athletes participating they’ve seen in many years.
In his career, wrestling has taken Dusty Dodge from The Dalles to Goldendale and now back to The Dalles.
Life has been a whirlwind, but he takes so much more away from his experiences that will last him through the test of time.
The Dalles wrestling team celebrated senior night at Friday’s Intermountain Conference dual versus Hood River at Kurtz Gym.
Steven Preston, Dusty Dodge and Mauricio Carrera each posted pins, and Zak Tackett won by forfeit, but Pendleton notched seven pinfall wins, a technical fall and two forfeits to take a 59-24 victory over The Dalles in a 5A Intermountain Conference wrestling dual Wednesday in Pendleton.
At the Hood River Invitational Saturday, Dusty Dodge claimed another title, and teammates Karen Villa, Steven Preston, Taylor Morehouse and Miguel Torres all placed in the top 6 to give The Dalles 11th place with 58 points.
Wrestling can spur a litany of emotions. There’s pain, frustration, happiness and joy all rolled into one. The Dalles head coach Paul Beasley felt a sense of overwhelming pride Saturday as junior and second-year wrestler Elejah Sutton-Lott steamrolled though her 125-pound weight class with three consecutive pins to earn first place at the Paul/Larson Girls Tournament Saturday in Sandy.
For the first time in a decade, The Dalles wrestling team competed in a dual tournament, tallying a 36-34 victory over Roosevelt and losses to Beaverton and Century to take hold of fifth place at the Bob Beisell Dual Tournament Saturday in Forest Grove.
Dusty Dodge is wrestling on a top level early in the season.
The 170-pound standout boosted his overall record to 9-0 and took home his second tournament win to highlight four The Dalles placers at the two-day Don York Invitational ending Saturday in Portland.
Added to Dodge’s triumph, Steven Preston claimed third place Karen Villa ended up fourth in the girls division, and Taylor Morehouse went 4-3 to preserve sixth place.
