Rocky vs Fort Collins Wrestling

Gunnar Anderson, Staff Writer|February 1, 2017

Bea Ashcraft

Wrestling at Fort Collins

On Thursday, January 12th, Rocky took on the Fort Collins’ Lambkins in a city rivalry filled with hard fought battles from JV to Varsity.

        Rocky entered the Lambkins territory Thursday with intentions of nothing less than total domination. This quickly went from intention to reality as the Lobos started picking up points by accepting forfeits for Evan Shell, Rider Anderson, Alec Hargreaves, and Jake Bennett. Last year, with a bit of a stronger team, the team won by a few more points, but this year you could really see the fire in the eyes of the athletes.

        The team’s 152-pound wrestler, Josh Betts, performed outstandingly. Betts is always a spectator favorite because of his funky way of getting things done. Not only is he an experienced and high ranked competitor, but also a person to rely on for an interesting match. After Betts finished his match he said,, “I think that I did the best that I could have. I gave up almost no points and I was controlling the match the whole time.”

            The rest of the points scored by Rocky were put up by Christian Deherra, Jonny Murphy, Gunnar Anderson, Josh Betts, Matt Maguire, and Steven Doyle. These wins ensured the team’s overall success in the match, marking no return for the Lambkins.

Last year, the team was able to fill out more sports with experienced wrestlers, whereas this year there are a few more spots where new wrestlers and younger wrestlers have filled in.

       One wrestler, Neil David, had to step up to the varsity level to replace Tate Martinez who is normally the team’s 145-pound wrestler and is currently out with a back injury. David took his place in the lineup and went out on the mat putting his whole heart into the match, showing great aggression, technique, and speed, but fell just short of the win.

The team battled hard and scored the extra team points everywhere they could, thus ensuring their win against another cross town rival who thought they could handle the intensity of Lobos.