By RYAN ANDERSON
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Wrestling team traveled to Pahranagat Valley on Friday, January 11 to compete in an individual tournament. The tournament was a bit smaller than past tournaments have been. So the tournament director pooled the weights and put 4-6 wrestlers in each pool. They then created round robin brackets ensuring each wrestler got 4 matches for the day.
The Pirates were coming off a long layoff and were ready to wrestle hard. They carried a lot of energy into the tournament and it showed.
Austin Tafoya, Jorge Cervantes, Russell Bodily, William Uri, Hayden Redd and Jackson Mills all went undefeated in their respective brackets to earn first place. Cropper Henrie suffered only one loss and took second. Ryan McMurray also wrestled hard only dropping one match to team mate Cropper Henrie and coming away with third. Jet Jackson also took third as a first-year wrestler. Weston Mortenson and Jarrett Jackson both took fourth in their brackets.
After the tournament was over, Russell Bodily wrestled a featured exhibition match against Jones from Pahranagat Valley. Bodily beat Jones earlier in the season at home in a closely contested match.
Bodily went up early and dominated the first half of the match. He pushed the pace and did his best to put on a show for the crowd. Unfortunately, he lost position a few times and Jones took advantage of it. Ultimately, Jones won the match making it 1-1 on the season.
The Pirates are busy this week with a home dual and senior night Tuesday against Chaparral which starts at 5:30 pm. The Pirates then take to the road with an away dual against Boulder City and aChaparral tournament over the weekend.
