Sophomore Robert Allred gets the upper hand against his San Juan opponent, Jayson McDaniel, just prior to pinning McDaniel in the second round during the Red Devils’ 54-24 victory on Dec. 19 at Moab. Photo by Jeff Richards
More than half of the evening’s matchups were forfeits, while the remaining six were decided by pin.
Gage Lindquist, a GCHS junior wrestling at 120 pounds, started off the dual meet with a forfeit win. Then, GCHS senior Dexter Sheets and San Juan’s Tanner Taylor squared off at 126 pounds. Sheets quickly pinned his opponent early in the first round for the win.
Junior Shawn Fugal won by forfeit in the 132-pound category, giving Grand six more team points.
GCHS freshman Seth Holyoak went up against San Juan’s Dallin Jacobsen, a senior, in the 138-pound category. Holyoak, who normally wrestles at either 126 or 132 pounds, hung on for more than one and a half rounds against his older and heavier opponent before getting pinned by Jacobsen with 37 seconds left in the second round.
“I wrestled up two weights so I could go up against him, rather than just taking a win by forfeit,” Holyoak said. “It was a good learning experience for me.”
GCHS head coach Dennis Wells praised Holyoak for taking the chance.
“Seth did a great job against one of their top guys,” Wells said.
During the next match, GCHS sophomore Robert Allred, who normally wrestles at 138 pounds, took on San Juan’s Jayson McDaniel in the 145-pound category. Allred managed to pin his opponent midway through the second round, putting Grand ahead 24-6 in the team scoring.
GCHS senior Trenton White scored a first-round pin over his 152-pound opponent, Spencer Beck.
Grand did not have wrestlers entered in the 160-pound or 170-pound weight classes, so San Juan earned forfeit wins in both those categories, Wells said.
Donavin Denton, a GCHS senior who usually wrestles at 170 pounds, faced San Juan’s Trevor Buck in the 182-pound category. Despite nearly getting pinned during the first round, Denton rallied and later scored a pin over Buck midway through the second round.
Grand then recorded two more forfeit wins – Matt Bridenbaker at 195 pounds and Austin Day at 220 pounds.
In the meet’s heavyweight matchup, Grand’s David Bentley faced off against the much heavier Lakeem Benally of San Juan. After a hard-fought couple of minutes, Benally managed to pin Bentley with just a few seconds left in the first round.
Near the end of the meet, Red Devil Justin Moore, wrestling in the 106-pound division, scored a forfeit win, which was followed by a non-scored double-forfeit in the evening’s final weight category, 113 pounds.
The Red Devil wrestlers are next scheduled to compete in the 2A duals tournament in Richfield Jan. 4 and 5.
Grand’s only remaining home match of the season will be against Monticello on Wednesday, Jan. 30.