Grapplers fight at last home bout

By Greg Sellentin • December 22, 2016 8:49 am

The Friday Harbor High School wrestlers had their last home match of the season against Sedro-Woolley and Burlington-Edison last Wednesday. Jordan Lawson and James Guard both had exciting matches where they came from behind in the late minutes of the final round to take wins. Tying up the bout with an escape from the down position, Guard then got the takedown where he was able to work his “go to” arm bar. Guard pried his opponent over and collected near fall points by almost getting the pin. In a very similar manner, Lawson managed a

Jordan Lawson and James Guard both had exciting matches where they came from behind in the late minutes of the final round to take wins. Tying up the bout with an escape from the down position, Guard then got the takedown where he was able to work his “go to” arm bar. Guard pried his opponent over and collected near fall points by almost getting the pin. In a very similar manner, Lawson managed a takedown and was able to get the pin. Asked about how he builds late bout endurance into his athletes Head Coach Taine Pyle said, “We don’t have any down time in practice and we work hard. If we aren’t on the mat, we are working the cardio. We worked pretty hard in practice the night before, so I was a bit surprised that these kids had something left in their tanks. Some of the wrestlers had three bouts that night!”

“We have some specific things we want to work on before our next match like escapes and reversals. We worked hard on drilling the single and double leg takedowns before the last match, and you can see the kids really trying to put to use what we drilled the prior week,” Coach Pyle explains.

The Wolverine grapplers will attend the Mount Baker Invitational tournament on Thursday, Dec. 22. They will be without senior Hunter Rustad, who is out for the season with a dislocated elbow that he sustained in a match in the Bellevue tournament last week.

“He won his first match, and was on his way to the finals, but couldn’t wrestle,” said coach Pyle.