TRAPPERS SPLIT PAIR OF EARLY SEASON DUALS
BY SETH ROMSA TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune
Competing at home for the first time this season gave the Northwest College men's wrestling team a boost as they defeated the University of Providence 32-12 on Friday before losing to Western Wyoming Community College 43-6 on Tuesday night.
NORTHWEST 32, PROVIDENCE 12
Opening the home campaign in Cabre Gym against the Argonauts on Friday the Trappers were hoping for an early season win over their NAIA opponents from Montana.
The first round went to Providence, as Tanner Ulrey defeated Northwest's Adrian Trujillo 19-3 via tech fall in the third period at 125 pounds to make it 5-0 for the Argonauts.
At 133 pounds, Zachary Covolo got the Trappers on the board with a third period pin of Eli Abercrombie to give the Trappers the lead 6-5.
"Zachary's match, that's a tight match," coach Jim Zeigler said. "Then the kid takes down in the third, and Zachary just really puts it on there. He was really close to a couple of takedowns earlier than that that were really nice. There were kind of flashes of greatness in my opinion."
A close match followed at 141 pounds, with Providence getting the better in overtime as Northwest's Kaiden Rubash fell to Andrew Macias 12-9 as Providence retook the lead 8-6.
The Trappers regained the lead at 149 pounds, when Akea Garcia earned an 11-8 win over Jesse Anson to give Northwest a 9-8 lead, a lead the Trappers would not relinquish.
At 157 pounds, Jack Lounsbury earned a tight 4-2 win over Austin Ramirez to make it 12-8.
"I think Jack had a really nice win," Zeigler said. "He got tight at the end, but he was able to secure the win. He out-wrestled the kid the whole way. It got kind of close at the end, but I think he started to play defense. [He was] going to that prevent [stance] and I wanted him to continue to wrestle."
Asad Fayzullaev got the win at 165 after a forfeit, before the Argonauts got another win at 174 pounds when Northwest's Jesse Thornton fell via a 15-1 major decision to Blaze Samiye to make it 18-12.
Easton Hopes pushed Northwest further out with a 7-1 win at 184 pounds.
"I think although the match went on for 30 minutes with blood, I think Easton wrestled a really good match," Zeigler said.
Austin Richens quickly added to the advantage at 197 pounds for the Trappers, earning a 16-1 first round tech fall win over Anthony Estrada before Jett Swain earned a forfeit win at 285 pounds to make the final score 32-12.
"Winning that match is really nice for the kids," Zeigler said. "They're showing good signs of improvement, focus and intensity and doing a good job."
In two exhibition matches, Northwest's Jackie Meador fell to Avian Martinez 6-1 at 125 pounds and Trapper Sunny Espinoza Jr. fell to Tristan Bremer 17-1 at 141 pounds.
WESTERN WYOMING 43, NORTHWEST 6
After the home dual on Friday the Trappers made the trip down to Rock Springs for a Tuesday night dual against the two-time defending national champion Mustangs.
The Mustangs jumped on the Trappers from the start, as Trujillo was pinned by Sefton Douglass and Covolo lost to Zach Marrero via an 8-0 major decision to make it 10-0 early.
"They [Western] came out confident, experienced, and they initiated things and put us on our heels," Zeigler said. "We got big-eyes, deer in the headlights and it just was hard to shift the momentum at that point."
Three straight Trapper pins stretched the lead out further, as Rubash was pinned by Dmitri Alarcon, Cariaga was pinned by Conway Christensen and Lounsbury was pinned late by Ryker Gibson to make it 28-0.
"They've got a great team, a great atmosphere down there, and had a huge crowd last night," Zeigler said. "Hats off to them, they're doing great, Art's (Castillo) doing a great job with them … They're the best team in the country right now, and it's hard to go into that den and take it away from them."
Fayzullaev fell via a 5-3 decision to Banks Norby, Thornton fell via an 8-1 decision to Sam May at 174 and Hopes was pinned by Banks Love at 184 pounds to make it 40-0.
The lone win for Northwest came at 197 pounds, when Richens pinned Ian Dickinson in 44 seconds.
"Austin took it to them the way they'd been taking it to us," Zeigler said.
In the final match, Swain fell via a 10-4 decision to Dmarian Lopez to make the final score 43-6.
"They're better than we are, they just are right now," Zeigler said. "We've got a lot of ground to make up … It takes time, and we've got to get some experience with these guys. I'm not going to say that last night was a positive thing for our learning experience, but we're going to have to turn it into that."
WEEKEND BREAK
Northwest will take this weekend off to prepare for another set of matches on the road next week, which will start with matches against Northeastern Junior College and Otero Junior College in Colorado before heading to a tournament in Nebraska on Saturday.
"We're working on fundamentals. These guys have some athletic abilities and things, but it doesn't do you any good if you're not fundamentally sound in things like maintaining good position," Zeigler said. "Then the other thing that we're working on is competition management; you have to manage the match. You have to know where your opportunities are, you have to know when to go hard. You have to create an advantage for yourself … Sometimes you have to create an advantage that forces errors on the other guy. So learning how to manage matches, it only comes with experience."