After another tough tournament, Dove Creek High School wrestling coach Shane Baughman said that he is pleased with his team’s improvement.
Competing at the Doc Wright Invitational in Page, Ariz., Jan. 16-17, the Bulldogs placed 14th out of 33 teams and put three wrestlers on the podium.
“As a whole, I thought we improved, and as the year is going on, we seem to be improving every week, “ said Shane Baughman. “I felt like as a whole, we wrestled pretty well.”
Leading the way for the Bulldogs was 106-pound junior Collin Hobbs, who won three matches before losing 3-1 to Coconino High School’s Isaac Cabrera in the finals.
“It was good to see him starting to turn it on,” said Shane Baughman.
Also making the podium for the Bulldogs was 126-pound junior Case Baughman, who finished fourth. He won four of his six matches on the day.
“(Case) wrestled real well and beat a couple of good kids,” said Shane Baughman. “He’s frustrated because he wants to be in the finals and winning tournaments, but he’s wrestling state champions every week.”
Rounding out Dove Creek’s podium finishers was senior Chance Randolph, who finished fifth with a 4-2 record.
“Chance wrestled real well until the semifinals,” said Shane Baughman. “He ran into a tough kid in the semifinals and lost a match that he should have won in the consolation semifinals.”
Next up is the Screaming Eagle Tournament in Paonia on Jan. 24.
(Paonia) has state champs where our good kids are, so we’ll see how we fare,” said Shane Baughman.