On October 28, the RiverHawk men traveled to Lassen Community College to take part in the Lassen Invitational Wrestling Tournament. The RiverHawk men went 2-2 on the day defeating host Lassen Community College 27-12 and Simpson University 27-6 while falling to Eastern Oregon University 42-10 and Sacramento City College 45-11.
The RiverHawks got their 2017-2018 season started off by facing Eastern Oregon University. The RiverHawks were without wrestlers at their first three weight classes 125, 133, and 141 respectively for various reasons including multi sport athlete and 133 pounder Grant Laiblin who was at the NWAC Southern region championships. By forfeiting three weights the RiverHawks were spotting all opponents 18 points.
At 149 pounds freshman Kobe Olson was the first RiverHawk in almost 40 years to have his hand raised at the end of the match. Olson defeated Eastern's Kaleb Ballard by a 9-0 major decision. The RiverHawks also picked up an 6-1 decision by Ian Thomas at 165 pounds and an 8-4 decision by Levi Summers at 184 pounds. The final team score was 42-10 in favor of EOU. Coach Temple said he was pleased with how his wrestlers competed. Take away the 18 points we spotted EOU and the score is 24-10. Additionally, Christian Perez at 174 pounds was winning his match 12-1 in the second period when he was reversed to his back and pinned. This was probably an 11 point swing. Christian had 3:30 of riding time in the second period and was tilting his opponent with ease. Had Christian stayed on top I believe he would have earned a tech fall. Making the team score 18-15 in favor of EOU."
Next the RiverHawks got their first dual meet victory by defeating host Lassen Community College 27-12. Lassen was in a similar situation to UCC with holes in their line-up due to injuries and eligibility issues. Coach Temple was pleased with Dallas O'Bryans win at heavyweight.
In their third dual UCC wrestled Sacramento City College where they lost 45-11. "Sac City is in the middle of their season as they compete in the California Community Colleges state tournament instead of the NJCAA like us" said Coach Temple. Getting victories against Sac City were 165 pounder Ian Thomas with a 16-0 Technical Fall and a pin by Levi Summers at 184 pounds. Coach Temple had the following to say about the dual; "Ian looked very dominate in his match against Sac City getting to the legs quickly and scoring from the top position. Levi is a hard individual to wrestle because of his extreme height. Levi used this height for defending several takedown attempts against his opponent and was able to step over the top and get a fall for us."
To end the day UCC wrestled Simpson University. Simpson had forfeits at the same weights as the RiverHawks. UCC defeated Simpson 27-6 with the only loss coming from Ian Thomas. 174 and 197 pound wrestlers Christian Perez and Josh Hammers both got their hands raised for the first time as a RiverHawk and ended their first tournament on positive notes. "Christian looked really dominate on top and fixed the mistakes he made against Eastern to start the day by earning a technical fall in the second period" said coach Temple.
The RiverHawks are in action again this Friday, November 3rd, at Southwest Oregon Community College. Action starts at 6:00PM.
Individual results from the Lassen Invite are as follows:
141 Pounds:
3 wins 1 loss
157 Pounds:
Wyatt Kesler
1 win 3 losses
165 Pounds:
3 wins 1 loss
174 Pounds:
1 win 3 losses
184 Pounds:
3 wins 1 loss
197 Pounds:
2 wins 2 losses
285 Pounds:
2 wins 2 losses
