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TUOLUMNE – Bret Harte senior Dakota Stephens was the first Bullfrog to wrestle on Wednesday night in Tuolumne. Stephens also ended the night as the last Bullfrog grappler on the mat.
Stephens’ night began and ended the same way, and that’s with his arm raised in victory after picking up a quick pin. Between Stephens starting and ending the night with quick pins, Bret Harte handed both Amador and Summerville losses in Mother Lode League action.
In a tri meet, it was Bret Harte who left Tuolumne as the only team with two victories. Bret Harte beat Amador 51-30 and then followed that with a 46-34 win over Summerville. In the head-to-head matchup between Amador and Summerville, it was Amador who won 39-30.
“I thought we wrestled pretty tough,” Bret Harte head coach Damien Stephens said. “Guys who were winning matches were winning through aggressiveness and effort. The guys who came out on the wrong end of a match, I felt like most of them gave maximum effort and it just didn’t work out for them.”
Before Bret Harte took the mat to take on Amador, the Bullfrogs first had to sit and watch Amador and Summerville battle one another. And after seeing the Buffaloes pick up a victory over the Bears, it would be natural for the Bret Harte grapplers to have some nerves. But Stephens didn’t feel that watching Amador beat Summerville had any effect on his wrestlers heading into their battle with the Buffaloes.
“I don’t think it matters,” Stephens said. “Like anything else, we expect the maximum effort in a match, no matter if you are wrestling a state champ, or if you are wrestling a first-year freshman newbie. We have to go out and give max effort all the time and score the team some points.”
The clash with Amador began with Stephens picking up a pin in the first round of the 145-pound match. Bret Harte sophomore Airein Gish followed with a 10-3 win in the 152-pound match. Bullfrog Henry Hicks collected a pin in the 160-pound match to put Bret Harte up 15-0. Gish and Hicks were two Bret Harte wrestlers who Damien Stephens felt wrestled well not only against Amador and Summerville, but who had been performing well for a while.
“Airein Gish and Henry Hicks have been doing it for a few weeks now,” Stephens said. “And even when they don’t come out on the right side of the scoreboard, their effort is there all the time and they both have killer instincts. They are getting us pins and that’s what we need.”
Bret Harte extended its lead to 21-0 with a forfeit victory for Sam Whitt in the 170-pound match. Amador battled back and picked up pins in the 182-, 195-, 220-pound and heavyweight match to take a 24-21 lead.
Bret Harte jumped back ahead on the scoreboard by picking up four consecutive pins. Following pins from Marcos Espejel (106 pounds), Julius Hill (113), Ryan Lee (120) and Manny Bettencourt (126), the Bullfrogs had a strong 45-24 advantage.
Amador collected a win in the 132-pound match, but Bret Harte ended things with a pin by senior Alex Worth (138) to give the Bullfrogs the 51-30 victory.
After a few minutes for Summerville to return to the gym and get situated on its side of the mat, the battle between the Bears and Bullfrogs began and it started with Gish picking up a 12-2 win. Hicks followed with a quick pin and Whitt followed suit with a pin in the second period to give the Bullfrogs a 16-0 lead over Summerville.
The Bears battled back and picked up 28 unanswered points to take a 28-16 lead over the Bullfrogs. Bret Harte got a victory in the 106-pound match from Espejel, who got a pin in the first period. Bret Harte then got a forfeit victory in the 113-pound match and followed that with a pin from Lee in the 120-pound match. Bettencourt recorded a pin of his own to put Bret Harte up 34-28. Summerville tied things at 34-34 with a pin in the 132-pound match, but pins from Worth and Stephens to end the night gave the Bullfrogs the 12-point victory.
“We are slowly building up the program and we weren’t competitive like this for a while, so it’s good that we are finally getting there,” Bettencourt said.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
Following the wins over Amador and Summerville, Bret Harte has a Mother Lode League record of 3-1. With the Bullfrogs continuing to improve with each outing, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if they make some noise at not only the Mother Lode League tournament, but also in postseason competition.
“I’m encouraged by the effort that the kids give day in and day out every day in practice and we are seeing it pay off in our competitions,” Damien Stephens said. “We still have a long way to go, but the kids are working hard, and they are doing the right things to get better.”
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