Dominating Warriors roll to league championship in H-DNL wrestling

By barstoolfanatics on February 13, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Del Norte’s Isaac Lopez celebrates his league championship on Saturday.

By Ray Hamill — The Del Norte boys defended their H-DNL championship in wrestling in emphatic fashion at Eureka High School on Saturday.

The Warriors finished with five individual champions and four runners-up in the 14 weight classes and outscored second-placed Arcata by an impressive 84 points in the final team standings.

Chulhs Bates, Isaac Lopez, Curtis Bartley and Colton Schaad each won their second individual championship for Del Norte, while teammate Braydan Johnson also was crowned champion at 175 pounds.

Alex Osborne, Soren Lewis, Reynaldo Martinez and Aaron Burger each also placed second for the league champions.

Afterwards, head coach Clinton Schaad admitted the winning margin was bigger than they had expected.

“I was pretty happy with the overall performance,” the coach said. “We thought it would be a little closer than it was, but the boys wrestled really well.

“Everybody held their seeds or did better than they were seeded, and when that happens it’s usually a pretty successful day. So it was pretty exciting.”

As expected, junior Curtis Bartley took home a second league title at 138 pounds, getting the better of McKinleyville’s Leo Cosce with a pin in the final.

And Bartley, who is one of the league’s top overall wrestlers, is hoping to continue his big season at this weekend’s North Coast Section championships and beyond.

“Curtis has been on a mission all year,” Clinton Schaad said of the junior standout, who is seeded No. 1 in his weight division for the NCS tournament. “He’s looking real solid and has been working extremely hard. He’s really been setting his eyes on section and state (qualification).”

Colton Schaad also impressed on his way to victory at 165 and is seeded No. 2 for the NCS.

He beat talented Hoopa grappler Donald Hostler with a pin in Saturday’s league final.

“He had a solid all-around day,” the coach said of the junior who was the favorite to win his weight class and did not disappoint. “And he’s also looking forward to this weekend.”

Bates, meanwhile, wrestled up a weight division on Saturday and defeated Eureka’s Logan Robertson with a 13-4 decision in the final.

Arcata’s Kaidan Bell in action against Del Norte’s Alex Osborne

Del Norte’s Chulhs Bates wrestles Eureka’s Logan Robertson in the 113 final.

The standout sophomore is now two-for-two in H-DNL finals and is also expected to make a good run at the section tournament after being seeded No. 3 in his weight division.

“He was kind of the favorite to win it and he went out there and did his job,” Clinton Schaad said. “He’s looking better and better every week.”

Lopez also won his second straight league title, beating Eureka’s Xinxai Lee in the final with a pin.

“Isaac kept his composure,” his coach said.

Rounding out the contingent of Del Norte winners, Johnson beat Hoopa’s top-seeded Nathan Edwards with a pin the 175 final.

“Braydan wrestled really well,” the coach said of the junior, who was seeded third in his weight division and was almost pinned a couple of times in the deciding match before finishing strong. “That was a great win for him.”

Arcata’s Aiden Ayers battles McKinleyville’s Brandon Hillegeist in the 120 final, above and below.

Hoopa, meanwhile, had a second-best three individual winners on the day, as well as three others who placed in the top three.

Sophomore Santiago Moon won at 144, beating Arcata’s Jackson Hicks by fall in the final, while teammates Antonio Correa and Tyler Lewis won at 190 and 215, respectively.

Correa, a junior, defeated Del Norte’s Burger with a 13-0 decision in his final, while Lewis, a sophomore, got the better of Arcata’s Matthew Anderson in his final.

The league titles were the second straight for both Correa and Lewis.

Arcata and St. Bernard’s both had two individual winners on the day, while Fortuna and McKinleyville had one winner each to round out the 14 weight divisions.

The Tigers capped a breakout season in the H-DNL — one that saw them win both the boys and girls league dual meet championships — with a strong showing at the league championships.

Fortuna’s Mason Evan (above and below) wrestles Arcata’s Mark Bickmore in Saturday’s 126 final.

Two Arcata freshmen won their weight classes, including Kaidan Bell at 106 and Aiden Ayers at 120.

Bell defeated Del Norte’s Osborne in his final with a 2-1 decision, while Ayers got the better of McKinleyville’s Brandon Hillegeist with a pin in his final.

St. Bernard’s Jack Kramer won at 157, beating Del Norte’s Martinez on a 9-5 decision in his final, while Kyler Smith defeated Eureka’s Knolin Callender with an 8-2 decision in the heavyweight final.

Like Kramer, McKinleyville’s Jace Thomson and Fortuna’s Mason Evanow each also successfully defended league titles they won a year ago.

Thomson took first at 150, beating Del Norte’s Soren Lewis in the final on a pin, while Evanow beat Arcata’s Mark Bickmore in the 126 final, also with a pin.

Del Norte’s Isaac Lopez wrestles Eureka’s Xinxai in the 132 final.

Del Norte’s Curtis Bartley in action against McKinleyville’s Leo Cosce in the 138 final.

The Del Norte boys scored 214 for the team win, with Arcata (130), Hoopa (107.5), Fortuna (105.5), Eureka (76), McKinleyville (72.5) and St. Bernard’s (45) rounding out the seven-team field.

Fortuna’s Cayden Spiers (106), Jacob August (132), Landon Leon (138) and Dailyn Wallace (175) each also placed third in their brackets, as did Del Norte’s Wyatt Sharp (120), James Gensaw (126), Remington Escobedo (144) and Dane Brown (215), Arcata’s Talon Villurruel (113) and Brayden Anderson (285), Eureka’s Paul Walker (150) and Michael George (190), Hoopa’s Raymond Baldy (157), and McKinleyville’s Lucas Dickey (165).

On Wednesday, we’ll have a complete breakdown of the girls tournament, which was won by Arcata, as well as news of a Fortuna grappler who made some history by becoming the first ever Husky to win a fourth league championship.