Pirates Host Hurricane Then Travel To St. George Meet

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Wrestling team hosted Hurricane, UT at home on Dec. 12 for a dual meet. There existed a significant rivalry between the two schools for many years and both coaching staffs are looking to rekindle that rivalry. The Pirates will travel to Hurricane next year.

Once again, the holes in the lineup this year got the best of The Pirates. Forfeiting matches at 132, 138 and 220 made the difference in the match. To the Hurricane coaches’ credit, they adjusted their lineup and shifted some of their wrestlers’ weight classes to give The Pirates as many matches as possible.

Austin Tafoya started the night off with a pin against his opponent, as did Jorge Cervantes. Zachary Anderson and William Uri also pinned their opponents. Gavin Henrie pulled out a very close match and won by decision. The Pirates ended up dropping the dual by a score of 33-48.

It was a great night of wrestling,” said Pirate assistant coach Ryan Anderson. “We’re looking forward to taking a full squad to Hurricane next year and redeeming ourselves.”

The Pirates travelled to Saint George, UT on Dec. 15-16 and competed in the Desert Storm Classic. This was a 32-team individual tournament. It was the first individual tournament that the Pirates had competed in this season. The rest have been dual tournaments where teams match up against teams.
“Most of our boys came away with at least one win but we were definitely tested,” said Anderson. “I think some of the guys had an eye-opening experience and learned they need to step up their mental game a bit if they’re going to compete against these more experienced wrestlers.”

Will Uri had a strong performance wrestling in the 170 lb weight class. He lost a tough match against his first opponent, then came back strong and pinned his second and third opponents. He lost a very tough match consolation round 5 to fall just short of making it to the medal rounds.

Gavin Henrie was The Pirates’ top performer on the weekend. He pinned Micah Burke from Pine View High School in his first match. He then dropped a close decision (10-7) to Koby Johnson from Grantsville. Gavin came back to record a 7-2 decision over Kaleb Lee from Salem Hills and a 6-2 decision over Jimmy Dunagan from Boulder City (who took 4th in state last year). Gavin lost his consolation semi-final match to Caleb Weaver of Cedar City and then went on to dominate Hunter Medina of Aztec, NM by tech fall (16-1) to win 5th place in the tournament.

On a side note, Aztec High School had a school shooting incident the week prior to the tournament and two of their students were killed. The Desert Storm tournament director and head wrestling coach, Jarad Carson, decided to take all the proceeds from tournament shirt sales and donate them to the families of the students who lost their lives.
“It was an extremely classy move,” said Anderson. “Coach Carson deserves lots of respect for his compassion.”

The Pirates don’t wrestle again until Jan. 10 when they will host Del Sol in a division dual. Wrestling will start at 6:00 PM. Come and cheer on your wrestlers as they compete for seeding in the regional tournament.