By Gregg Chappell
Moapa Valley Progress
Moapa Valley wrestlers traveled to Boulder City to compete in a tri-dual with Centennial and Boulder City Eagles last Tuesday, December 5. The first dual of the evening pitted the Bulldogs against the Pirates.
Centennial has a solid wrestling team and has skilled wrestlers in almost every weight class. Centennial jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they dominated the Pirates with a final score of 66 to 15.
Winning for the Pirates were; Dylan Smith decision 10 – 4 at 138 pounds; Trevor Durham pin at 160 pounds; Parker Chappell pin at 182 pounds.
Moapa then took on the host team in the second dual of the evening. This was the first time the Pirates and Eagles have seen each other this season.
The Eagles have dominated the league for the last several years and the Pirates were looking to change that statistic. Moapa is still shuffling personnel around in the weights and has some holes in the line-up until the weight loss schedules are met. Forfeits for the Pirates came at 106, 120, 195, and 220 pounds.
The entire match came down to the 285 weight class where the Pirates were leading the Eagles by three points but had a 6 point forfeit at 106 pounds after the heavy weight bout.
Under extreme pressure Lee Gamboa grappled tough and pinned his opponent ensuring the team victory.
The final score for the bout was Moapa Valley 41 Boulder 38. Scoring for the Pirates Kaleb Bodily pin at 126 pounds; Brayden Evans pin at 132 pounds; Dillan Smith win by forfeit; Schyler Postma pin at 145 pounds; Trevor Durham pin at 160 pounds; Parker Chappell tech fall 16 – 1; Lee Gamboa pin at 285 pounds.
Pirates traveled to Spring Valley on Saturday to compete in the Spring Valley Duals. Due to a conflict with the ACT test on Saturday morning the Pirate team only had a handful of wrestlers who could attend the meet. Still while there was no hope of advancing in the duals, Coach Shane Hickman decided that mat time for individual wrestlers was more critical at this early stage in the season than winning as a team.
Each of the wrestlers had four matches and faced some tough competition as they saw opponents from Foothill, Spring Valley, Liberty, Arbor View, Bishop Gorman, Pahrump and Clark High Schools. Although all six wrestlers walked away with valuable mat time, very few matches ended in a win for the Pirates. Parker Chappell went undefeated for the day.
