Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Wednesday night’s dual matches at Arcata High.

By Ray Hamill — Excitement is building for what will be, as always, a busy month of February for local high school wrestling.

The league championships will take place at Arcata High School on Feb.15, with the North Coast Section dual meet championships the previous weekend, and the NCS championships one week later.

Many of the H-DNL teams have been battling some sickness and some injuries in recent weeks, but all are hoping to be back at full strength for such an important part of the season.

This week featured some league dual matches with frontrunners Arcata and Del Norte remaining unbeaten as they get set for a pivotal showdown at Arcata High next Tuesday.

On Wednesday night, the Tigers hosted McKinleyville and Hoopa in a series of dual matches and comfortably won all of them.

The Arcata boys defeated McKinleyville 45-26 and also beat Hoopa 64-18, while the Arcata girls got the better of Hoopa 60-12.

Despite missing five of their top wrestlers, the Tigers continue to dominate many of their H-DNL rivals with plenty of quality and depth on this year’s roster.

“I’m really impressed with all of the kids,” Arcata head coach Cass Bell said. “We’ve got a lot of new kids and they’re all catching on, and the kids that have been wrestling a long time are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

“The only thing that’s slowing us down is injuries and sickness.”

Like many of the league’s boys teams, the Tigers will travel this weekend to compete at the Ukiah tournament, while the Arcata girls will compete at the Goddess of the Vine tournament in Concord.

On Wednesday, Arcata’s Silven Yoder continued his impressive season with a big win in his dual match against McKinleyville, despite this being just his second year competing on the mats.

Skyler Collenberg also impressed with a pin within 15 seconds in his heavyweight match.

Chase Bickmore (first-round pin) and Isaiah Bell (decision) each also impressed on their way to victories in their matches for the Tigers.

“Everybody looked really good,” Cass Bell said.

The Arcata girls wrestled in a dual match against Hoopa and won 60-12.

Among the standouts for the Tigers, Mya Collenberg won her first competitive match of the season with an eight-second pin, while first-year wrestler Aleta Stubblefield pinned her opponent in 72 seconds.

Several of the McKinleyville and Hoopa wrestlers also impressed on Wednesday.

The Panthers were also missing some key wrestlers through sickness, but enjoyed some big wins, including sophomore Daniel Woods at 120 pounds.

“He’s come along ways,” McKinleyville head coach Virgil Moorehead said. 

Lucas Dickey also continued to impress with a victory at 165, as did team leader Brandon Hilligeist with a pin at 126.

Hilligeist, a senior who placed at the NCS championships a year ago, is now 24-3 on the season.

Damarius Thompson also has impressed this winter for the Panthers, who are enjoying a good season with several individuals expected to challenge for a league title or more in the coming weeks.

Thompson recently won his weight class at the Eureka tournament and followed that with a first-place finish at last week’s Corning tournament.

McKinleyville junior Thurman Henderson, who is in his first year competing at the high school level, also recently placed third at the Grants Pass tournament.

As a team, the Panthers are enjoying plenty of success this winter, placing first at the Eureka tournament and second at both the Del Norte and McKinleyville tournaments.

Moorehead is hoping to have his team back to full strength for February.

“That’s what we’re shooting for right now, to get them healthy,” the longtime coach said. “It’s been a very rewarding season, so hopefully we can finish on a high.”

The Panthers have one more dual match against Eureka next week.

The Hoopa Warriors also have bene battling some sickness and injuries but are healing up at an opportune time.

This week, the Warriors had two dual matches on the coast, at Eureka on Tuesday and at Arcata on Wednesday, and despite being overmatched in terms of numbers they had several individuals impress.

Riley Baldy (132\) and Eugene Coleman (144) both won their matches for the boys team at Eureka, as did Larry Begaye at 165 and Quincy McDonald at 215.

Allison Mace also won her match for the Hoopa girls at Eureka.

Unfortunately no details were available for any of the Eureka wrestlers.

Raymond Baldy (175) won for the Hoopa boys at Arcata, as did Antonio Correa (285) and Nate Edwards (190), both by forfeit.

Pamela Houston and Andee Lewis both won for the Hoopa girls with pins, with the impressive Lewis, who is still a freshman, wrestling up a weight class.

The dual match at Arcata was rescheduled from a couple of weeks ago when the Warriors had to postpone due to sickness throughout the squad.

“We got over the sickness, but we’re still dealing with some injuries with some kids,” Hoopa boys head coach Robert Baldy said. “Hopefully by the time league and sections roll around we’ll be good.

“I’m just excited for this weekend and seeing what they can do at Ukiah.”

The Warriors, who won the program’s first-ever NCS dual meet championships a year ago, are hoping to secure an at-large berth for this year’s NCS dual meet championships.

Del Norte and Fortuna also faced off this week in a dual match, with the Del Norte boys winning 62-11.

The Warriors got victories from Allie Bartley (major decision), Trevan Donahue (forfeit), Chulhs Bates (tech fall), CJ Norris (major decision), Wyatt Sharp (pin), James Gensaw Jr. (pin), Chey Gensaw (pin), Curtis Bartley (major decision), Remington Escobedo (decision), Colton Schaad (technical fall), Braydan Johnson (pin) and Yatish Patel (pin).

Karlye Dodson (pin), Aubry Dodson (forfeit) and Bailey Fox (forfeit) all won for the Del Norte girls to lead them to an 18-12 team victory.

The Warriors also took a small team to last weekend’s MidCals tournament, with impressive performances by Fames Gensaw, who went 5-2, and Curtis Bartley, who went 5-1 and finished second in his weight class.

Allie Bartley also impressed for the Del Norte girls and finished 4-2 in tournament action, while teammate Golden Rule was 2-2.

A couple of Huskies also impressed in their dual match this week, including Kaysen Finley (215) and Andres Mendes (165).

“Kaysen Finley came out and wrestled awesome,” said Fortuna head coach Steven Stockdale, who added “those two, their effort was there.”

The Huskies will also travel for the Ukiah tournament this weekend, before closing out their league dual match schedule at Hoopa next Wednesday.