Hood River News

By BEN MCCARTY

News staff writer

January 27, 2007

With the scuffle of wrestling shoes against the mat, and a body rolling over another the momentum changed. In the closing minutes of his match against Zack Keyes at 152 pounds, Bill Hunter got a point for a reversal, a point that allowed the senior wrestling in his final home conference dual meet to win his match and set up the Hood River Valley Eagles for a 37-24 win over Centennial in their final home dual meet of the year.

After getting three wins in the first four matches, including a major decision by Corey Miller and a first round pin by Alex Titus, the Eagles lost two straight matches as Centennial built a 21-13 lead.

After Aaron Mallon was defeated in a 6-4 decision on a takedown that came as the match buzzer sounded, Hunter was able to get the win for Hood River, and pull the Eagles to within two points at 24-22 with three of the strongest wrestlers still to come.

“That was a nice match by Bill, it was gutsy,” Hood River Coach Rich Polkinghorn said. “A huge part of the sport is knowing how to win.”

Following Hunter’s win, Justin Tolentino earned a technical fall victory over Centennial’s Tyler Hoecker to put Hood River back on top.

They never looked back from there as Joe Johnson quickly pinned Devin Fleming at 171 pounds 1:50 into the first round of their match to put Hood River up 33-24 and all but secure the win.

Lucas Mondragon closed out the match by defeating Centennial’s Antonio Gonzales at 189 pounds in a 10-3 decision to secure the victory.

Even though Centennial made the match close until the Eagles swept the final four matches, Polkinghorn felt confident from the get-go that his team could get the win.

“We knew they were going to be very tough with their lightweights but our guys did what we needed them to do,” he said. “We felt pretty confident.”

The senior night win snapped a two-meet conference losing skid and moves Hood River to 3-2 in conference dual meets on the year with one conference meet to go, next Thursday night in Barlow.

The Eagles will wrap up their regular season with the Hood River Invitation, Feb. 3, before districts begin Feb. 15.

“Right now we’re in the process of training for districts and getting as many people to state as we can,” Polkinghorn said.

The meet was also the final home conference contest for senior wrestlers Ben Eddy, Titus, Brandon Nakamura, John Phillips, Billy Cannon and Luke Schwartzel.

Results:

215 pounds

Corey Miller (HRV) def. Nick Bird Major

Decision-10-1

275 pounds

Alex Titus (HRV) def. Alex Nichols

Pin-1:08 1st round

112 pounds

Michael Peacock (Cent.) def. Olbie Schwatzel

Decision-6-4

119 pounds

Gage Morris (HRV) def. Kenney McKinney

Decision 7-5

125 pounds

Zack Murphy (Cent.) def. Julio Avila

Pin 1:49 2nd round

130 pounds

Kyle Wirkuty (Cent.) def. Brandon Nakamura

Pin-1:37 2nd round

135 pounds

Sean Baker (HRV) def. Colton Jones

Decision-3-2

140 pounds

Ben Eddy (HRV) def. James Schultz

Decision 7-2

145 pounds

Ricky McBee (Cent.) def. Aaron Mallon

Decision 6-4

152 pounds

Bill Hunter (HRV) def. Zack Keyes

Decision 5-4

160 pounds

Justin Tolentino (HRV) def. Tyler Hoecker

Technical Fall (18-3) :23 3rd round

171 pounds

Joe Johnson (HRV) def. Devin Flemming

Pin :49 1st round

189 pounds

Lucas Mondragon (HRV) def. Antonio Gonzales

Decision 10-3