Opening its season at the Moab Invitational on Dec. 5-6, the Dove Creek High School wrestling team placed six of their seven wrestlers on the podium. An individual tournament championship eluded the Bulldogs, however.
“It was a lot tougher tournament than what I expected,” said Bulldogs head coach Shane Baughman. “Over 200 wrestlers competed, and most of the weights had 15 or 16 kids.”
Leading the way for the Bulldogs in the 138-pound division was senior Chance Randolph, who finished second overall with a 5-1 record.
The second-place finish proved bittersweet for Randolph, who, coming off a runner-up finish at the state tournament last season, expected to win the tournament.
“We were thinking that maybe he needed to win this thing,” said Shane Baughman. “He lost to a wrestler from Norwood that he has beat his whole life. It was kind of disappointing.”
Also finishing second for the Bulldogs was 132-pound junior Case Baughman, who won his first five matches before losing 13-4 to Monticello’s Zac Musselman in the finals.
“(Case) got into the finals and froze up a little bit,” said Shane Baughman. “He wrestled a tough kid from Monticello.”
Other second-place finishers for the Bulldogs included 106-pound freshman Rhett Quackenbush (5-1), 113-pound junior Collin Hobbs (5-1), 120-pound sophomore Donavan Trudeau and 195-pound senior Tyler Knuckles (3-3).
“(Quackenbush) looked pretty good,” said Baughman. “(Hobbs) was untested until the finals and in the finals, he froze up a little bit. Trudeau was aggressive and did a good job. Knuckles struggled on Friday and came back and beat the same kids on Saturday.”
Next up for the Bulldogs will be a dual against Del Norte in Dove Creek on Dec. 12. Dove Creek will then host 14 schools at the Dawg Fight Tournament on Dec. 13.
“The biggest thing is that we’ve got to finish tournaments,” said Shane Baughman. “We wrestled well, getting to finals is great, but we can’t be satisfied with that. We want to win championships.”