After eight duals, the Dove Creek Bulldogs are undefeated on the wrestling mat.
Those team duals and hosting the 14-school Dawg Fight tournament last Saturday, you can bet Shane Baughman's squad has earned some well deserved rest.
"We're going to take this week off. Some of our guys are pretty banged up," Baughman said. "We were going to go to Bloomfield (N.M.), but we decided to pick up a tournament in Page instead."
The Page, Ariz., tourney is slated for Jan. 18-19, 2013.
At the Dawg Fight, the Bulldogs placed second to Utah rival Monticello. The Buckaroos totaled 153 points to Dove Creek's 148. The Bulldogs were hurt by injuries that may have been the difference between first and second.
"Our kids wrestled pretty good," Baughman said. "At 170, we ended having to pull Wyatt Applin, which was kind of the difference in the tournament. He hurt his back a little bit, so we had to pull him out of the tournament."
Cole Baughman and Tyson Smith each won tourney titles at 132 pounds and heavyweight.
Bobby Cook, Dalton Randolph and Dillon Daves all placed second at 106, 152 and 160.
Daves lost a heartbreaker in the finals by an 8-7 decision.
"He (Daves) was just attacking, attacking, attacking and that kid kept on backing away, backing away," said coach Baughman about Daves' finals match. "Dillon just didn't quite have enough time to get the job done."
Chance Randolph also took second at 126, losing a tough match in the finals to a two-time defending Utah state champ from Monticello.
Collin Hobbs (106), Case Baughman (120) and Tyler Ebberts (145) all came in third in their respective weight classes. Nick Jones came in fourth at 138. Tyler Knuckles went 2-2 at 182 pounds.
"This is the toughest the tournament has been since we've had it," Shane Baughman said. "It was probably the toughest tournament we've had (overall) in a while. It was good for the kids."
Del Norte was third-place as a team with 127 points.
Dove Creek is off until next Saturday when it wrestles in the Piedra Vista Invitational in Farmington, N.M. The Bulldogs have already had great success in Farmington, going 5-0 in duals at the Farmington High School tourney Dec. 1.
