Photo courtesy of Del Norte High School – The Lewis brothers at last weekend’s NCS championships.
It was good opening day for the three H-DNL wrestlers competing at the state championships on Thursday.
Del Norte brothers Thunder and Wyatt Lewis qualified for the prestigious tournament in Bakersfield, along with Arcata freshman Taylor Bell.
And all three were in action on Thursday.
Thunder, a senior, and Wyatt, a junior, each received an opening-round bye and would go on to win their first two matches.
That puts each of them in the quarterfinals, as they both look to continue their impressive run at the state meet.
Before moving back to their native county last year, the two brothers competed at Clovis High School and enjoyed tremendous success on the mats.
Thunder has placed at the state meet in each of the past three seasons, while Wyatt has placed there in each of the past two seasons.
And they each continued that impressive run with a pair of wins on Thursday.
“They’re doing good,” Del Norte head coach Clinton Schaad said from Bakersfield on Thursday evening.
The two brothers will wrestle once more each on Friday, taking the mats for the quarterfinals, and win or lose they will have the rest of the day to recuperate, before resuming tournament action on Saturday in either the semifinals or losers bracket.
Their opening-day success won’t come as a major surprise to anyone who has followed the careers of these two standouts over the past few years.
“They have a really high work ethic,” Schaad said. “They don’t make any excuses. They’re both hard-nosed, hard-working (wrestlers), and they train really hard together.”
Both brothers clinched North Coast Section titles at James Logan High School last week, along with Bell.
Submitted photo – Taylor Bell
The Arcata freshman is appearing in her first high school state championships but she clearly wasn’t intimidated by the level of competition in her first match.
The impressive Bell pinned Stephanie Cervantes to get her tournament started, before falling to the tournament’s No. 5 seed in her second match.
Bell will try to battle back to the podium through the consolation bracket, beginning on Friday.
She’ll be back on the mat at approximately 10 a.m.
The Lewis brothers’ strong showing at last week’s section meet helped lead the Del Norte boys to a fifth-placed finish as a team.
“Last week went pretty well,” Schaad said. “Overall, the boys that showed up wrestled pretty well. It’s hard to complain about fifth place out of 116 schools.”
Among the highlights for the Warriors was the performance of Remington Escobedo, a defending NCS champ who was hoping to make it back to the state championships.
Karlye Dodson on Senior Night
Escobedo, who has been one of the most impressive league wrestlers over the past two seasons, suffered a broken hand but continued to battle despite the setback.
“He could have won it again, but at that level you’ve got to be 100 percent,” Schaad said.
Karlye Dodson also had a big weekend for the Warriors, falling just shy of qualifying for the state meet in her final high school tournament.
The Del Norte senior finished fourth in her bracket, one spot out of state qualification.
“The girls that went down there wrestled really well,” Schaad said. “Karlye had a great career, and she had a really good tournament.”
The senior looks set to continue her wrestling career on the college mats.
“She’ll have opportunities at the next level,” Schaad said of Dodson, who has received plenty of interest from college coaches.
