Grafton grapplers open with dual victory
The Grafton wrestling team picked up its first dual win of the season defeating the MayPort-C-G Patriots 59-24 in its home opener last Thursday at the Grafton High School gym.
By having enough wrestlers eligible to fill most of the 14 weight classes Grafton benefited with four forfeits which count for six points each in the team scoring. Receiving forfeits for Grafton included Noah Carlson (106), Noah Flores (113), Cody Lillico (195) and Jeremy Talamantes (285). Grafton forfeited in three weight classes at 120, 145 and 220.
Grafton’s first match wrestled came at 126 pounds where Jaron Lunday pinned Keegan Elliott using a near-side cradle at the 1:21 mark of the first period.
At 132 pounds, Grafton’s Donald Stewart scored several near falls and won a technical fall with an 18-3 decision over MayPort-C-G’s Ricky Steward.
“Donald’s match was a little bit of a surprise,” Grafton coach Brad Larson said. His opponent won around 25 matches last year. It was nice to see him come out and dominate like he did.”
At 138 Josh Thompson defeated the Patriots A.J. Adolpho with a pin. Grafton’s Cody Kringstad lost to MayPort-C-G’s Logan Elliot as Elliot scored a pin fall at the 1:19 mark of the first period.
“Elliot is probably their best wrestler,” Larson said.
Grafton’s Art DeLaCruz put six points up on the Spoiler scoreboard pinning opponent Jerick Houdek at the 1:14 mark of his match at 160 pounds.
Grafton junior Travis Dolan wrestled a few classes above his weight at 170 and scored a pin over the Patriots’ Alex Kleven at the 1:21 mark of the first period.
“I figured he’d been going up against linemen much bigger than him during the football season so 18 pounds didn’t make that much difference,” Larson said. “He’s a team leader and he knows what needs to get done for the team.”
Grafton’s final win came at 182 pounds as Santos Reyes scored a pin fall over MayPort C-G’s Ryan Morris at the 1:16 mark of the match.
In the final match wrestled on the evening at 220 pounds, MayPort-CG’s Josh Gapp defeated Grafton’s Eli Hartje with a pin at the 1:16 mark of the match.
Of the eight matches wrestled, Grafton won six, with five of those wins coming via pins.
“Overall I was pretty pleased with our first dual,” Larson said. “Things went pretty much the way I expected. (MayPort-C-G) is down a little bit this year. Last year we tied them and won on criteria, but this is the first time we’ve beaten them outright.”