IN SPORTS: CALAVERAS BEATS LODI WRESTLERS
It was a week later than expected, but Lodi High’s wrestling team finally stumbled out of the gate on Wednesday, with a 54-19 loss to Calaveras at The Inferno.
With smoke from the Camp Fire in Butte County delaying and canceling events in the first week of the season, Lodi had an away match at Ceres and a novice tournament canceled. So when the Flames opened the season on Wednesday, it was against a seasoned Calaveras squad.
“That was a very good team, I thought,” Lodi coach Keith Mettler said. “They’ve got some boys.”
It showed — the visiting team used six pins, two forfeits and a triple-overtime victory in the 138-pound weight bracket to cruise past a young Lodi squad.
“We’re terribly young. I have three seniors that are wrestling at the varsity level, I’ve got a couple of juniors, and the rest are sophomores and freshmen,” Mettler said. “So we’re extremely young. It’s a work in progress, and I hope I can keep it together. It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be our most challenging year since I’ve been here.”
It doesn’t help that Mettler lost two varsity wrestlers for the year before the season began due to disciplinary issues.
There were bright spots for Lodi, though. Adam Schallberger pinned his opponent, Chris Autrey, in the third period of his 152-pound match, followed shortly by a Steven Shumate pin of Calaveras’ Caden Villegas in the first period of the 160-pound match.
In the heavyweight division, Lodi’s Sean Carpenter gutted out a 4-0 victory over Calaveras’ Austyn Shoemaker, with an escape and a takedown in the second period, and an escape in the third.
“Oh, I was really tired. The final period, I was just like this the whole time, had my arms up,” Carpenter said. “My arms were basically dead weight. That’s why I kept on holding on to him. I need to work on not getting tired. I need to get in shape.”
Carpenter is less then a month out of football season, where he played offensive line, but said football shape is different from wrestling shape.
“Basically, you’ve got to work on your stance and be fast and quick. In football, you’ve got to be fast and quick too, but wrestling requires more strength,” Carpenter said. “A lot more strength. So I have to hit the weight room every day, just be strong and you’ll be a winner.”
He had a good workout on Wednesday, with Shoemaker weighing in at about 275 pounds against Carpenter’s 234.
“Sean did a great job, I thought, because that kid outweighed him by at least 50 pounds,” Mettler said.
Another victory came from 113-pounder Killian Deyarman, who scored steadily through all three periods to defeat Colton Munniks 12-2.
Calaveras, though, had pins from Owen Murphy at 145 pounds, Zack Oberle at 170, Donivan Giangregorio at 182, Elliot Houghton at 195, Brad Fuller at 220 and Phoenix Nguyen at 126, plus Rafael Rolden’s triple-overtime 3-2 victory over Lance Elliott at 138, to overpower the Flames.
“First action, pretty strong team, and you know, little jitters,” Mettler said with a shrug. “With all that said, we’ve got Lincoln next week in our first (Tri-City Athletic League) dual, and that’ll be the test, because I think Lincoln is the team to beat in the TCAL.”
On the junior varsity side, Calaveras won 69-0. In the only girls match, Lodi’s Madison Taylor battled to an 11-7 victory over Calaveras’ Maddi Hedger in the 140-pound division.