The Del Norte Warriors continued an impressive early season on the wrestling mats with another strong showing at the Grants Pass tournament this past weekend.

The Warriors are the defending boys and girls league champions and will begin H-DNL dual meets early next month.

For now they continue to prepare and have impressed at several pre-league tournaments, including at Grants Pass.

“We did pretty good,” head coach Clinton Schaad said. “I think like a lot of teams we’re battling the flu. We limped into Grants Pass, but the guys wrestled their butts off. It was a pretty good team effort.”

Most notably from freshman Chulh-ts’a Bates, who defeated a two-time Oregon state champion in the 106-pound final, battling back late to win by pin with just 30 seconds remaining.

Teammate Curtis Bartley also won his weight division, placing first at 138 pounds as he continues his impressive start to the season.

“He really wrestled hard,” Schaad said of Bartley, who won the final in double-overtime.

Several other H-DNL wrestlers also competed at the big tournament, including Hoopa’s Kae-wett Nelson, who won at 170 pounds.

Nelson’s teammates Gerard Marshall and Antonio Correa each also wrestled well.

Marshall lost his final at 285, while Correa placed third at 183.

Del Norte’s Colton Schaad, meanwhile, continued to grow and placed second at 160, getting the better of St. Bernard’s Grant Omey in the semifinals.

“He’s been coming along,” Clinton Schaad said of the standout sophomore. “He’s got a lot of upside.”

Omey, a senior, would battle back to place fifth.

At 106, Fortuna junior Cayden Spiers lost his semifinal match but would come back to place third, while at 113, St. Bernard’s Chase Bickmore placed second, Del Norte’s Alex Osborne was third and Eureka’s Kalvin Robbins was fifth.

Arcata sophomore Isaiah Bell also impressed at the two-day event and reached the semifinals at 126 before eventually placing sixth.

At 132, Del Norte’s Isaac Lopez reached the semifinals, where he lost to Daniel Strain, but he battled back to beat Strain in a rematch later in the tournament to take third.

At 195, Hoopa’s Tyler Lewis was third and Del Norte’s Jase Mintonye finished fifth.

Some of the H-DNL teams, including Del Norte, will travel to compete at a tournament at Liberty High late next week.