Submitted photo – The Arcata wrestlers celebrate their big win at Del Norte on Wednesday night.
The Tigers are ahead of schedule.
A young Arcata wrestling team was supposed to challenge the dominating Del Norte Warriors for an H-DNL dual meet championship in the near future, but they took a massive step toward the league crown with a team victory in Crescent City on Wednesday night.
The win keeps the Arcata grapplers unbeaten in league competition with one dual meet remaining, at Fortuna on Tuesday.
A victory over the Huskies would give the Tigers a league championship and guarantee them a place in next month’s North Coast Section Dual Meet Championships, which will take place at Eureka High on Feb. 3.
“It’s huge,” said Arcata head coach Cass Bell, who is in his third year in charge and has quickly brought the Tigers back to the top of the league. “To me it shows we’re going in the right direction. The kids are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
“The team is very young and the future looks very good for us.”
The dual meet loss was the first for the Warriors in league competition in seven years and Bell says he was told it’s been 13 years since the Tigers beat them.
The boys won 42-36 and for good measure the Arcata girls team also won 42-18.
“We’re not where we want to be yet and we still have a long road ahead of us, but everything’s falling into place,” Bell said.
The Tigers won eight of the 14 matches in the boys meet, including victories for Kaidan Bell, Aidan Ayers, Talon Villarruel, Jacob Mola and Isaiah Bell, the latter of whom won a thrilling matchup against Del Norte’s reigning league champion Isaac Lopez at 138 pounds.
“It was a crazy match,” Cass Bell said of his younger brother’s win, after Isaiah rallied from a four-point deficit in the final 20 seconds to win 5-4.
Arcata freshman Jackson Hicks also won by pin at 150, but the Tigers trailed by six points going into the final two matches of the night.
However, the Anderson brothers would step up for the Tigers to claim two late wins to seal the come-from-behind team victory.
Senior Matt Anderson won his match at 215 to tie the score, before freshman Brayden Anderson won at 285 to secure the victory.
Brayden was one of four freshmen to win their matches for Arcata, along with Kaidan Bell, Ayers and Hicks.
“I’ve got a lot of young studs taking out more experienced wrestlers,” Cass Bell said.
Another freshman, Mya Collenberg, won her match for the Arcata girls, along with teammates Piper Bjorkstedt and Lillian Afridi, the latter of whom was wrestling up a weight division.
Harmoney Claybon, Teresa Pilatti, Reyna May and Maile Russell each also won by forfeit, while Alison Osceola also impressed her coach in a loss in her first action back from injury while wrestling up a division.
“It’s been quite the journey these past three years, but they’ve become quite the team,” the head coach added. “And with the number of freshmen and sophomores we have leading the charge, I’m excited to see what the next few years bring.”
The Tigers will now turn their attention to this weekend’s Ukiah tournament before their final league dual meet at Fortuna.
And Cass Bell is taking nothing for granted.
“We need the kids to be ready because anything can happen,” he said.
Wednesday’s team wins capped a big few days for the program after the Arcata JVs also placed first at the weekend Prince of the Mat Windsor tournament.
Mola, River Mattole, Mason Blair, Josh Castillo, Owen Wolf, Nathan Stiles, Brayden Anderson and Skylar Collenberg all placed first in their brackets, while Max Lorenc finished second.
Bjorkstedt and Rory Bickmore also competed at the prestigious Mid-Cals girls tournament in Gilroy over the weekend, with Bickmore placing fifth in her division.
