Dusty Dodge went 3-0 to win his 182-pound bracket, Karen Villa placed third, Zack Tackett tallied fourth place and The Dalles boys wrestling squad claimed 11th place out of 13 teams at the Adrian Irwin Memorial Tournament last weekend in Bend.
Still Short-handed with 14 active wrestlers, four on the girls side, the Riverhawks posted 11 individual victories overall, eight by pin, and added two major decisions and a technical fall in Saturday’s action.
“I am so proud of our placers this past weekend, and of our whole team,” TD assistant coach Ryan Manciu said. “They have been working hard in practice and giving 110 percent every day and it shows in the last weekends tournament.”
Hitting the mat at 182 pounds, Dodge had a pair of byes before advancing to the quarterfinals.
In his first bout, Dodge won by fall over Landen Roggenkamp (LaPine High School) at the 28-second mark of the first round and claimed a second-round pin (3:17) against Juan Servin (McKay High School).
One win away from his first title as a Riverhawk, Dodge wasted no time in his first-round pin at 52 seconds versus Israel Rivas (McKay High School).
At 130 pounds in the girls division, Villa had a 2-1 record and tallied 14 team points with both wins coming by way of pin.
Following a semifinal pinfall loss to Bend’s Kyleigh Cuevas, Villa notched her first victory in the consolation semifinals by way of a second-round pin at the 2:26 mark against Carla Tena (Nyssa High School).
With third place on the line, Villa dispatched of Laura Monciel (McKay High School) in the second round (2:54).
Another newcomer, Tackett, from North Dakota, ended up 2-2 overall with a major decision and technical fall to his record.
Tackett (120 pounds) had byes in the first two rounds and then squared off against Martin Mendez (Nyssa High School) in a quarterfinal match.
The Riverhawk youngster dominated Mendez by a 17-4 margin to vault into the semifinals, where he lost to Dylan Mann (LaPine High School) by first-round pin (1:41).
Now in the consolation semifinals, Tackett secured a 20-5 technical fall triumph versus Steven Lechuga (Bend High School), which moved him into the third-and-fourth-place match opposite Jayden Hanson (Ridgeview High School).
Hanson pinned Tackett midway through the third round (4:53) for third place and Tackett wound up fourth.
Following his opening-round pinfall loss to Sayre Williams (Mountain View High School), TD senior Ben Nelson picked up a pair of winning performances, both coming in the consolation bracket.
Nelson scored his first win versus Conner Comingore (Madras High School) at the 2:28 mark of the second round and dropped Adan Montes (Nyssa High School) with a first-round pin (1:38).
Nelson’s run ended in his match versus Dawson Williams (Burns Union High School) at 1:38 of the first round.
Going up against tough competition in the 160-pound bracket, Quinn Wilson (4-4 record) tallied a 12-4 major decision victory in his first match with Jared Miller (Sisters High School), but lost his next two matches to Jeremy Gonzalez (of LaPine High School, a 14-7 decision) and Summit’s Andrew Skidmore (second-round pin at 3:28).
In the heavyweight classification, Miguel Torres grabbed a win and scored six team points, with the lone triumph coming by pinfall over Kody Van Meter (Nyssa High School) at 4:42 of the third round.
That performance moved Torres to the quarterfinals, where he battled it out versus Daniel Underwood (LaPine High School).
Underwood secured a pinfall win at 33 seconds of the first round and moved Torres into the consolation bracket.
There, Madras’ David Sumner earned a 5-0 decision to eliminate Torres from contention.
Also hitting the mats were Angel Oregon (126 pounds), Conor Blair (126), Aaron Pyles (160), Taylor Morehouse (182) and Ayden Orion (285), who each went 0-2 in two matches, eight of those losses by pin.
On the girls side, Elejah Sutton-Lott was 0-2 with a decision and pinfall loss at 135 pounds, Megan Lenardson (140) lost two matches by third-round pin, and Kai Hoff ended up 0-3 in her 145-pound bouts, two losses in the first round and the last one coming in the second round.
Early on, the Riverhawks have dealt with injuries and illness that has hurt their continuity, but coach Manciu feels like once everyone gets back to top form, the program will get back to improved performances.
“We have had the flu go through our team and they have pushed through,” Manciu said. “Once we are a full team again going into the main part of our season coming up, we will be tough. They have a lot of heart and they support each other like a family, and it is great to see. It shows what we are all about.”
After their winter break, the Hawks travel to Portland for the two-day Cleveland Tournament, starting at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 3.
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