Submitted photo – The Fortuna girls placed third at last weekend’s Eureka tournament.
By Ray Hamill — If the Huskies can continue to build like they are this year, their future on the wrestling mats looks bright.
Roughly half of their roster of 28 this season are freshmen and the youngsters have been impressing through the first half of the season.
And the hard work they have been putting in is now paying dividends.
On Tuesday night, the Huskies faced off against Eureka in a league dual meet and the boys team comfortably won 48-19.
“We’ve got a young crew and they’re wrestling well,” boys head coach Steven Stockdale said. “It’s probably one of the hardest working rooms I’ve had. It’s pretty impressive to watch them.
“The kids are buying into the process.”
Stockdale and his wrestlers made the short trip to Eureka High to compete in the weekend North Coast Classic and placed fifth in the team competition, with an impressive showing in some of the lower weight brackets.
Five Fortuna wrestlers placed in the top three in their brackets, including three who finished second.
One week after a fourth-place finish at a very competitive Anderson tournament, Landon Leon placed second at 144 pounds, as did teammates Elias Golder at 126 pounds and freshman Waylon Shaw second at 113.
Golder also reached the final in his bracket at the Anderson tournament, while Shaw has been one of the team’s biggest bright spots this season in his first season wrestling at the varsity level.
“He’s legit,” Stockdale said of the impressive Shaw, who has placed in the top three at every tournament he’s competed in and has made four of five finals.
Fortuna’s Eli Hampton (120) and Brett Coleman (132) both also placed third at the Eureka tournament.
Tyson Evanow also has impressed on the mats for the Huskies this year and will be expected to make some noise at next month’s league championships, although he was unable to make the trip to Eureka this past weekend.
The Fortuna girls, meanwhile, placed third at the Eureka tournament on Friday and had two wrestlers take top spot in their brackets.
At 110, Maliah Cheng beat out the field to place first, as did teammate Allison Watson at 135.
Fortuna’s Tiffany Krause (105) and Clara Posey (120) both also placed third, while teammate Wynter Juul was fourth at 145.
The Fortuna boys also impressed at the recent Anderson tournament, where they placed fifth out of 32 teams, while the school’s boys JV team placed first out of 20 teams at the North Coast Classic on Friday.
The Huskies, who are 1-1 in league dual meets after also losing to Arcata last week, will host McKinleyville in an H-DNL matchup next Tuesday and Del Norte the following week.
The Huskies will also travel to compete at the Willamette tournament in Eugene, Ore, next week.
