Prep Wrestling:

Wrestlers on track for 3A tournament

Heather Cory

Boulder City’s Franklin Badgely, top, wrestles Sunny Hill’s Weston Bernella, bottom, during the Wolves Duals wrestling tournament at Basic High School on Dec. 30.

By Brent Hinckley (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 | 11:45 p.m.

Heather Cory

Sunny Hill's Bryan Saltysik, top, puts Boulder City's Daniel O'Conner in a headlock during the Wolves Duals wrestling tournament at Basic High School on Dec. 30.

High school sports section

The 3A Southern League wrestling tournament is less than a month away and Boulder City High coach Kevin Ruth said the team's focus is turning to the postseason.

"Everything comes down to those last two weeks (league and state tournaments). The first part of the season is about learning moves and techniques. The second part is about being in shape and putting those things together," Ruth said.

Ruth said the biggest surprise of the season is the amount of wrestlers in the program. There are 35 grapplers in the program to give the Eagles plenty of competition for spots for varsity and junior varsity meets.

"I've never had this many wrestlers, this far into the season. It's a great atmosphere and we're on track to do what we want to be able to do," he said.

Prior to the league tournament, which is at Boulder City on Feb. 7, the Eagles have a busy schedule.

There are two league matches, including one on Jan. 7 hosted by the Eagles and tournaments at Shadow Ridge (Jan. 10) and Mohave, Ariz., (Jan. 23). They will also face off against Foothill on Jan. 29.

Boulder City went 1-3 at the Wolves Duals at Basic on Dec. 30, defeating first-year Desert Oasis but losing to Basic, Cimarron-Memorial and Durango.

"We had only seven wrestlers so head-to-head we had a lot of forfeits," Ruth said. "Individually though, we won a lot of matches with a couple guys going undefeated."

Going 4-0 in the duals were junior Allan Haines (135), freshman Franklin Badgely (171) and junior Jake Thormsodgaard (189).

"It was pretty tough, because I'm a lot younger than most of those guys," Badgely said.

Brent Hinckley is the Boulder City News sports writer and can be reached at 990-7822 or brent.hinckley@hbcpub.com.