Two Tigers Medal In Royal City Meet

ROYAL CITY -- The WP Tigers wrestling team brought home two fourth-place medals from a big regional meet in Royal City on Saturday after reeling in two pins at a smaller meet in Ritzville on Thursday.

"I'm happy with the improvements and performance out there," Tigers head coach Lanny Adams said.

The Royal City meet was among the largest meets in which the WP team has participated so far. Fifteen teams attended from WP, Royal City, Pomeroy, Reardan, Riverview, Wahluke, Davenport, Burbank, St. John Endicott, Brewster, Almira, Othello, Natchez Valley and Wilbur.

Dalton Larue placed fourth in his weight division (160 pounds) after pinning three opponents and losing narrowly to a fourth.

Larue, who has hopes and ambitions to qualify for the state wrestling tournament in Tacoma next month, "was hungry," Adams said. "He wanted that medal."

It took Larue a round and a half to pin his first opponent, Joe Wells from Natchez Valley. The Tiger dominated the first match after taking Wells down almost immediately, then reversed his bottom starting position in the second round and pinned the Natchez wrestler with less than a minute to go in the second round.

Adams said if the officiating had been better, Larue would have won his second match against Jack Yorgesen from Wahluke, but the outof bounds calls went against him, edging out Larue, 5-4.

In his match against Zachary Hill from Wilbur, Larue was assessed a penalty for holding on to Hill's singlet. It was a call that "lit a fire" in the Tiger. With 10 seconds to go in the second round, Larue pinned Hill using a cementmixer move.

Larue was even faster in pinning Jason Rodriguez from Othello in his fourth round.

" Dalton dominated all three rounds," Adams said. "He wanted that win."

Trenton Kitselman won one of his three matches with a pin. He lost the first match he wrestled against a competitor from Royal City who pinned the Tiger within a minute and later took his weight division in the meet.

Kitsleman was more successful against his second opponent, Kaleb Kolb from St. John, whom he pinned 47 seconds into the third round.

"Trenton was wrestling smart, keeping his hips low and moving all the time," Adams said. "He was finally able to turn him in the third -- got him in a double-arm bar. That's one of Trenton's signature moves. If he gets someone in that, he's going to get him pinned."

Against his last opponent, Tyrell Calvert from Natchez Valley, Trenton made a classic error: standing up too straight and giving Calvert a chance to take him down and pin him with a "head-and-arm" move fewer than 20 seconds before the end of round one.

Gabe Escalante lost each of his matches, though the official did not go down to mat level to make sure both shoulders were pressed to the mat before calling a pin in the first match, said Adams, who described the quality of officiating at the Royal City meet as "disappointing."

Kavin Kuykendall brought home a fourth-place medal, but it was largely through default. His weight class (126 pounds) drew poor participation and Kuykendall had several byes in the consolation round.

Again, controversial offi ciating led to a WP loss with Kuykendall deemed pinned in his only match of the meet after the buzzer went off, Adams said.

"He wrestled a tough kid," Adams said. "But time was out and the pin shouldn't have been called. Kavin was disappointed."

Adams said he noticed a new fighting spirit in the firstyear wrestler.

" He wanted to wrestle again," he said. "That's a huge improvement right there."

Another improvement Adams noticed in Kuykendall recently is his willingness to wrestle with his body instead of his mind.

In his first round at Ritzville on Thursday, Kuykendall said upon Adams' suggestion he closed his eyes while wrestling Tom Kirk from Tri- Cities Prep.

"I didn't think about things as much," Kuykendall said about the experience. "My body was more in control."

Kuykendall held out almost 2 minutes against the more experienced TCP wrestler, working his way out of a half-Nelson/arm-bar move and getting top of an opponent for the first time this season.

Escalante too held out better against competitors in the meet that drew wrestlers from Lind/Ritzville, St. John- Endicott, TCP, Liberty, Warden and White Swan, lasting into the second or third round before being pinned.

Kitselman pinned Cameron Fox from TCP 17 seconds into the third round, after resisting several pin attempts in his second match of the Ritzville meet.

"I got angry," Kitselman said about his mounting intensity during the match. "I sped it up and took it into my own hands. Particularly when the other wrestler's coach said (to Fox): 'ride him out and you'll win'"

Larue pinned Micah Selk from St. John- Endicott a minute and a half into the first round, but lost 7-4 against John Hylden from TCP on points and got pinned by Drew Wilke from Lind/Ritzville in a little over a minute in his third match.

"Dalton cradled but turned the wrong way and it slipped," Adams said. "Then he caught in a head and arm, and it was over for him. I guess he won't be making that mistake again."