Warriors Wrestlers Rout McKinleyville; Boys Fall to Arcata

WRESTLING There are wins, big wins, and there is what the Del Norte High boys’ wrestling team did to McKinleyville last week. Wrestling in front of their home fans in Charles Thunen Gymnasium, the Warriors finished with 70 points. The Panthers ended with negative 1. That’s right, 70 to -1. McKinleyville was hit with a sportsmanship penalty that produced the minus total. All in all, Eight Del Norte wrestlers won via fall: David Burshem, Thunder Lewis, Wyatt Sharp, Remington Escobedo, Brody Burger, Davion Johnson, Dane Brown and Robert Reyes Villegas. The Warriors also dismissed Ferndale, 66-9 with C.J. Norris, and Blake Owen both collected wins via pin. On the girls side, Del Norte posted shutouts over McKinleyville (47-0) and Ferndale (48-0). Aileen Carlson picked up a win via fall while Allie Bartley scored a technical fall to score. Over the weekend Del Norte also represented at the Mid-Cal Championships in Gilroy, and at the Redwood Empire Classic in Ukiah. Last night, the Warriors held their final home match of the season, a dual-meet battle against Fortuna.

BOYS BASKETBALL Last week Del Norte High fell behind Arcata early, rallied, fell behind, rallied, and fell behind one last time, as the Warriors lost to Arcata 58-45 in a battle of second-place teams in the boys’ Big Five Conference basketball. Del Norte trailed 17-5 after one quarter, but with less than a minute left in the half narrowed the Arcata lead down to just four points. Unfortunately for the Warriors, the Tigers hit a pair of three pointers, giving them a 10-point cushion at halftime. Del Norte made several second half runs, only to have the four-time defending conference champion answer, giving the Tigers a 3-2 conference mark. The Warriors are now 2-3, tied with Eureka for third place in the Big Five standings. Justin Cushman finished with a team-high 15 points for Del Norte, who also received a strong defensive effort from Marcus Parras. He limited presumptive Big Five most valuable player Luke Lemke to 19 points, 11 under his conference average. Del Norte’s freshmen lost last Thursday, 45-40, to Eureka, despite 19 points from Tristan Zuniga. In junior varsity play, the Warriors lost in overtime for the second consecutive game, this time 55-53. Travis Pincombe scored 20 points for Del Norte.