Wrestlers gain great experience at Platte Valley dual tourney Saturday

    With regional and state wrestling meets coming up next month, the Jan. 26 Platte Valley Dual Tournament provided great opportunity for wrestlers to gain some great experience in some challenging matches.
    Due to the number of forfeits given up in open weight classes, the Dragon team results look bleaker than they actually were.
    To open the tourney, Holyoke lost duals to Mullen 45-18, to Wiggins 48-24 and to Platte Valley 55-6. HHS gave up four forfeits apiece to Mullen and Platte Valley, and five to Wiggins.
    “With so many open weight classes, there’s no way we can win duals such as these,” coach Dusty McConnell said. “Overall, we wrestled very tough,” he added.
    After the opening three duals, the Dragons were put into a bracket where they won duals over Faith Christian and Estes Park, finishing in 13th place out of 16 participating teams.
     Including a few wins by forfeits, three Dragons were 4-1 for the day, and two more were 3-2.
    Earning 4-1 records at Platte Valley were Jesus Trejo at 145 lbs., Luis Chafino at 160 and Michael Ramos at 170. Finishing 3-2 in Saturday’s tournament were Deacon Dittmer at 152 lbs. and Andy Lopez at 182.
    In Chafino’s 2-6 loss to Platte Valley’s Josh Yancey, McConnell emphasized the value in the challenging match in preparing for the post-season.

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