Wrestling: Tigers take Hawks down in final home dual

It was somewhat of an anticlimactic senior night for the Douglas High wrestling team Wednesday against Hug.

The Tigers said farewell to five seniors, but only two of them ended up getting to wrestle.

Hug brought nine wrestlers down, but the five empty spots on its roster happened to fall in mostly the same weight classes as the Tiger seniors.

Not that it mattered much. Douglas took wins in six of the seven contested matches, with five of those coming by pin, in a 66-18 win over the Hawks.

With the win, Douglas improved to 4-2 in league duals this season.

Seniors Tony Ferris (189 pounds), Ryan Olsen (135), Javier Trujillo (160), CJ Wynar (145) and Pat Theilen were honored before the start of the match, but Hug only fielded opponents for Trujillo and Wynar.

Wynar cruised in his match against Hug's Joe Cowl, scoring a takedown in the first five seconds and spinning that around into a pin after only 37 seconds had elapsed on the clock.

Trujillo was well on his way to a pin in his match before his opponent, Cory Keller, defaulted due to an injury to his elbow.

Trujillo built a 5-0 lead with a takedown and a near-fall, but Keller worked his way back to his feet near the edge of the ring. Trujillo corralled him and brought Keller down hard on his arm. Trujillo positioned Keller's shoulder just inside the ring for the apparent pin, but Keller was writhing in pain after the takedown.

The match was blown dead and Trujillo awarded the victory by injury default.

Sophomore Cody Spates opened the match with a pin in 58 seconds in the 140-pound bout.

Wynar followed with his pin to give Douglas a 12-0 lead and Tyler Cook breezed through his 152-pound match against Hug's Andrea Evans with a takedown 15 seconds in and a pin in 37 seconds.

Trujillo's win pushed the score to 24-0 before a forfeit in the 171-pound class against Douglas got Hug on the board at 24-6.

Ferris then took a forfeit win in the 189-pound class to put Douglas up 30-6.

Douglas Steve Anderson suffered an early near fall in the 215 match against Hug's Steve Price. Price converted that into a pin at 57 seconds to cut the deficit to 30-12.

Hug's standout heavyweight Carson Carman took a forfeit win in the heavyweight bracket to complete the Hawks' scoring on the night at 30-18.

The dual swung back to the lightweights as Douglas' Dillon Spates took a forfeit win in the 103-pound class to put the Tigers up 36-18.

Wes Peterson, Douglas' 112-pounder, scored an early takedown in his match, but fell back into a tie after being called for two illegal holds. He recovered, though, and recorded a pin at 1:45 to put Douglas up 42-18.

In the 119-pound class, Tim Souza took on Hug's Soloman Brauns and got up early with a takedown at 11 seconds.

Brauns scored an escape, but the two swapped reversals to work the score to 6-3 before the end of the period.

Souza opened the second with a takedown and pinned Brauns at 3:39 for the 48-18 team lead.

Eddie Kollar took a forfeit win at 125 pounds, Nico Barker took a forfeit at 130 pounds and Olsen took a forfeit at 135 pounds to close the match out at 66-18.

While the majority of the seniors didn't get a chance to wrestle Wednesday, the Tigers did get a look into their future with six exhibition matches after the varsity dual.

Carlos Cordova took a 10-3 decision over one of Hug's 140-pound varsity wrestler and Joe McDonald scored a 23-pin at 160 pounds.

Freshman Zach Falanga, who wrestled several matches at the varsity level this year, suffered a pin in the second round but had comeback from a 5-0 deficit early on to close the score to 6-4.

Freshman Cameron Jorgenson pinned Hug's Brauns, another varsity wrestler, at 119 pounds and Douglas' Josh Theilen pinned Hug's Zach Denton in 1:10.

Douglas heads to the Clayton Valley Invitational this weekend and travels to the Alhambra tournament next week.

The Tigers get a final tune-up on the road against Wooster on Jan. 23 before the Northern Regional Championships begin Feb. 1 at Spanish Springs.