Larue Brings Home Gold For Tigers

BOARDMAN, Ore. - Tiger wrestler Dalton Larue brought home the first gold medal for the new WP wrestling team, defeating two other wrestlers to win in his new 160-pound weight class during the Riverside Rumble Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Saturday.

Meanwhile, at the Tigers' statewide meet in Pullman last Wednesday, Gabe Escalante won his first pin as a WP wrestler, beating Dally Ratliff from Prairie High School in Vancouver, Wash., barely a minute into the second of three rounds.

Head WP wrestling coach Lanny Adams said the results show marked progress among his current Tigers, who all decided to wrestle down to a lower weight class as a result of a weight management program.

"There's been a lot of improvement (this past week)," Adams said.

Starting with Larue, who pinned his first opponent in a school record of 17 seconds and beat his second opponent for the gold on technical points in three rounds, Adams said he "could not be happier than what Dalton showed there on the mat."

Larue overcame Mac Hi wrestler Cody Hammond in seconds flat using a move the team had just practiced the Thursday before the sixschool Riverside Rumble. In a move Adams referred to as a "cement job," Larue applied a head lock and under hook to turn Hammond over and press his back to the mat.

In Larue's weight-class title match, he was up against the muscular Andrew Bara from Heppner High School in Heppner, Ore., who tried to use his body strength to overpower the WP wrestler.

"Dalton stayed in control the whole time and simply outwrestled him," Adams said about Larue's 8-5 victory over the Oregon athlete. "Dalton brought his A-game down there."

Larue's gold is the first medal for the first-year Tigers and has lifted the boys' confidence, Adams said.

In Wednesday's 17-school meet in Pullman, the indi- vidual performances were disappointing except for Escalante's exciting first pin, the coach said.

Escalante pinned Ratliff 1minute and 12 seconds into the second round and became the second team member after Larue to pin an opponent. The first-year wrestler caught Ratliff in a nearside cradle and used his own body to roll him over on his back, at times dangerously exposing his own back.

"It took him 10 seconds from the move to get the pin," Adams said.

The other wrestlers did not win their two individual matches, possibly because they were tired from Tuesday's meet in Pomeroy, or because they were being somewhat sidetracked by holiday activities, Adams said. But at practice on Thursday, they all decided to move into a lower weight class to boost their odds of winning, a change that requires a commitment to careful weight management. Escalante moved into the 113-pound class, while Kavin Kuykendall is now in the 126- pound class, Trenton Kitselman in the 132-pound class and Larue in the 160-pound class.

The Tigers are off to Ritzville on Jan. 12 for their next meet, and then travel to Royal City in Grant County for their next tournament on Jan. 14.