Black Canyon Brawl/Grace Duals

This past weekend Grace high school hosted the first in-county matches of the season.  The weekend kicked off with the Black Canyon Brawl Girls Tournament.  This is a fairly new tradition for Grace to host this event at the first of the season.  Unfortunately, this year’s tournament had very few local girls in attendance.  Due to a variety of reasons only three Grace girls were able to participate in this year’s event.  Despite the low number of girls the Lady Grizzlies represented their school well finishing with sixty-five team points and all three girls making the podium.  In the 100 lb. weight class Adeline Clark was pinned in her first match of the day but then went on a run.  After pinning her next three opponents in quick succession Clark arrived at the third place match where she faced Serenity Brees from Malad.  In a very tough match Clark came out on top winning by decision with a score of 11-10.  The other two Lady Grizzly wrestlers were the Ball sisters.  Hayden Ball wrestled in the 115 lb. weight class.  Hayden dominated in the first three rounds winning each match by fall in less than one minute.  With wins over wrestlers from Minico, Bear Lake, and Pocatello Hayden made it to the first place match.  Hayden was up against Akeelah Gonzalez from Snake River in the championship match.  Though she battled hard ultimately Hayden was pinned at around the three minute mark of the match and finished her day in second place.  Holland Ball wrestled in the 135 lb. weight class.  Like her sister Holland dominated the first three rounds of the tournament.  Holland picked up wins over girls from Thunder Ridge, Minico and Marsh Valley and like her sister all three wins came by way of pins in less than one minute.  In her first place match Holland was paired up with Sabina Bennetts from Challis.  In keeping pace with her sister Holland also had a tough championship bout where she too ultimately was pinned in just under three minutes.  Holland joined her sister with a second place finish in the tournament.

With the girls all wrapped up for the week the boys took to the mats on Saturday for the Grace duals.  These duals involved both Grace and North Gem. The two teams faced each other in one of the duals.  In that dual Grace came out on top 36-18 but most of the Grizzlies points came by way of forfeit due to North Gem only having three wrestlers compete.  In those three matches it was the Cowboys who grabbed wins.  At 132lbs North Gem’s Landon Hayes won by fall over Grace’s Gabe Wiegman.  Jaxyn Welker from the Cowboys made short work of Mark Hulse from Grace earning the fall in under a minute in the 150 lb. weight class.  Lastly the North Gem senior Haydn Frandsen pinned Jackson Juncker from Grace in the 175 lb. weight class.  As a team North Gem also suffered losses to Challis and both Thunder Ridge teams that were in attendance.  However, individually on the day Hayes finished 2-2, Welker was 1-3 and Frandsen went 4-0. 

North Gem’s Haydn Frandsen started his season winning all of his matches in his opening duals.

The Grizzlies were only able to pull off the one team win over North Gem while losing to Challis and the two Thunder Ridge teams.  That being said, several Grizzly wrestlers did grab individual wins along the way. Jaden Lunt (126), Carter Kimball (138), and Mac Jorgensen (215) all went undefeated in the duals. Douglas Robbins (157) and Bradley Scheile (165) each finished with 3-1 records.