The DGS boys varsity wrestling team (3-0 in conference) slammed a win against the Morton Mustangs 70-9 last night at home. DGS pinned the victory by receiving 10 pins and two technical falls.
“Morton traditionally has had some really good teams, we have had some really good duels against them over the years. Right now they’re kind of in rebuilding mode, and we have a lot of seniors, so it should’ve happened like that, but I thought we did some technical things really well, like from the top we got the wrists, we got some tilts, we looked good on our feet. A couple positions from the bottom we got to clean up, like moving a little more but overall our kids were pretty prepared for tonight,” head varsity wrestling coach Sean Lovelace said.
One of the newest members of the varsity squad won by one of the two technical falls the Mustangs had. Freshman Jadon Dinwiddie got to business fast as he got two points from a take move against Morton sophomore N. Guzman at the very start of the match. Dinwiddie ended the match with a 17-0 win in the third period of the 126 pound weight class.
“He has started a bunch of duels for us before; he’s a burst of energy. It’s been awesome. When I was talking about guys not moving on bottom, he was one of the only guys that was, he’s a stud,” Lovelace said.
Dinwiddie is in his third year of wrestling; he wrestled in his 7th and 8th grade years at Jefferson Junior High, and this is his first year on the varsity level. Even though he is one of the younger wrestlers at this level, the older kids still look up to him for his skill level at such a young age.
“It gives a different perspective because honestly I’m so much older than him. It feels good having someone this young on the team and just being as good as he is. It helps me wrestle just by seeing what he can do,” senior captain Conner Kelly said.
Kelly dominated Morton F. Saez in the 165 pound weight class. Kelly didn’t waste any time, he pinned Saez at the time of 1:33 with a grand amplitude throw in the first period, which crowned him the winner of the match.
“Going into this I knew a lot of our conference duels are pretty easy, so I just didn’t want to wrestle down to their level. I just wanted to wrestle up to my level and just keep it quick,” Kelly said.
After Kelly’s win, senior captain RJ Samuels was up next. Samuels was quick with his feet throughout the match. With the six take-downs and a reversal move he had clutched him a win over Morton J. Avalos; Samuels pinned Avalos at the 3:29 mark in the 175 pound weight class.
“RJ moved well on his feet, he was switching directions both ways pretty well. He went out and he dominated,” Lovelace said.
The next match the Mustangs will make an appearance in will be this Saturday as they host the Gassen invitational tournament. The tournament will host 20 different teams, with whom 14 are ranked.
“We have slowly built this into a really good tournament but we have never won it. I think the best we got was third, but that’s always a good thing so that we can build on that this weekend,” Lovelace said.
