norman
country-financial
March 29, 2024 12:57 am
Your hometown Newspaper since 1987.
Search
Close this search box.

Pirate Wrestlers Compete In Two Duals

By RYAN ANDERSON

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley High School wrestling team competed in two contacts last week. The Pirates first traveled to Hurricane, UT for a dual on Tuesday, November 28. Then they wrestled in a dual tournament at Boulder City on Saturday.

The Pirate team is apparently going compete this season without anyone filling the 106, 126, 132, 138 and 145 lb. weight classes. This will create a huge disadvantage in duals and dual tournaments where the team will go head to head against other teams being forced to give up forfeits at each empty weight class.

“Our philosophy this year has been to forget about winning duals,” said coach Tyson Houston. “Rather we are encouraging the athletes to go out, work hard, have fun, and score as many points as possible, knowing the winning and losing will take care of itself based upon individual effort.”

The Pirates went into the Hurricane dual with a 36 point deficit due to forfeits (missing the 160 lb. wrestler until this week as well). But they came out swinging from the outset.

Senior Austin Tafoya set the tone early against one of Hurricane’s best wrestlers. Despite being taken down at the outset of the match, he quickly escaped and earned a takedown of his own bringing the match to a close 3-2 going into the second period.

Austin turned on the motor in the second period scoring 12 points to go into the third with a 14-4 lead.
But he didn’t stop there. He scored four more points in the third period before breaking his opponent’s will and pinning him to earn a crucial 6 team points for The Pirates and get the ball rolling.

Pirate senior Jorge Cervantes went out and pinned his opponent in the first period keeping up the momentum before the Pirates hit the dreaded forfeits that came in the middle of the lineup.

Russell Bodily, a junior, made a few errors in the first period of his match giving him a pretty significant deficit to climb out of. But climb he did. Unfortunately, he ran out of time as he was making his come back and ended up dropping the match 14-9. Bodily is looking forward to a rematch later in the year at the Dixie High School tournament in St. George.

Despite missing the first week of practice workouts due to a football injury, junior Hayden Redd came away with a grind-out win against one of Hurricane’s studs. Redd, visibly exhausted, still managed to score 10 points in a 10-4 win bringing the team score to 39-14, Hurricane.

Junior Ryan McMurray, sophomore Cropper Henrie, and senior Jackson Mills all pinned their opponents in the first period earning 18 more team points for The Pirates. Freshman Jarrett Jackman, who is a first-year wrestler lost by fall to bring the final team score to 45-32, Hurricane.

Despite losing the dual, the Pirates only lost two of the matches that were actually contested on the mat.
Houston, who has coached Tafoya since he was in the youth program, said Austin wrestled better than he had ever seen him wrestle.

Later in the week, Jorge Cervantes and Bodily went undefeated in Boulder City. Austin Tafoya, Hayden Redd and Cropper Henrie also had a good tournament. Unfortunately, due to the format of the tournament being team duals, the six forfeits resulted in team losses to Coronado, Rancho and Pahrump.

The final dual of Saturday’s tournament was against Desert Oasis. The standout match for was senior Weston Mortenson who is currently wrestling Heavyweight for our team despite being a true 220 lb. wrestler. Weston gives up at least 40 lbs. every match and sometimes as much as 60. Such was the case against Desert Oasis.

But because Mortenson has put in so much work during the off season his cardio is outstanding. He wrestled one of his best matches on Saturday.

The final score wasn’t in his favor (mistakes at the scoring table and mismanagement of the match by the referee providing almost 5 minutes for Weston’s opponent to rest during the match). But Mortenson battled the entire six minutes and refused to quit, resulted in a Pirates’ win with a final score of 42-40.

Pirate coaches were proud of the team and are excited for the season. The coaches are encouraging Pirate athletes to come out and wrestle; especially those qualifying for weight classes where the Moapa team is not represented.

“We maintain that the more football players who come out and wrestle, the better our football team will be,” Houston said. “NCAA football coaches seek out high school wrestlers when recruiting. The balance, strength, quickness, agility and confidence you will gain from a season on the mat will pay dividends to you on the field. The weight room is good. The wrestling room is ten times better.”

The Pirates wrestle in a home dual on Tuesday night going up against Virgin Valley, Pahranagat Valley and Lincoln County.

Print This Article:

Share This Article:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Screen Shot 2023-02-05 at 10.55.46 PM
2-21-2024-fullpagefair
4 Youth Service WEB
2-28-2024 WEB Hole Foods St Patricks
No data was found
2023 WEB BANNER 2 DEFAULT AD whitneyswater
Mesquite Works Web Ad 10-2020
Scroll to Top
Receive the latest news

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Get notified about new articles