This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Beaumont Comes Up One Short In First Round of CIF Dual Meet Wrestling

Cougars hang tough with fourth-seeded Quartz Hill in the Division 4 CIF Dual Meet Wrestling Championship.

Seventy-three seconds was all it took for the hard work of Beaumont High to turn into a deficit that was just too tough to overcome at Saturday's CIF-Southern Section Division 4 Dual Meet Championships at Redlands East Valley High.

The Cougars were eliminated in the first round of the 16-team tournament, losing a heartbreaking 31-30 match to fourth-seeded Quartz Hill, the champions from the Golden League.

"We just let it go," Beaumont head coach Jason Lundbland said. "It wasn't just one person or one thing. It was the whole team."

Find out what's happening in Banning-Beaumontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It was surely a disappointing result for Lundbland and the Cougars, who held a 21-19 lead after 125-pounder Joey Morris took a 9-2 victory over Nicholas Dipressi. With four matches remaining, the Rebels seized command with back-to-back pinfall victories from Patrick Troung (130) and Tyler Benavides (135) at 41 and 32 seconds respectively.

What was a two-point lead for the Cougars, suddenly turned into a 31-21 deficit. Needing two pins for victory, the co-champs of the Mountain Pass League did the best they could, squeezing out 10 points in the final two matches.
It wasn't enough.

Find out what's happening in Banning-Beaumontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Afterwards, Quartz Hill coach Trevor Leach breathed a sigh of relief.

"When I saw the bracket, there was one team I didn't want to see in the first round - and that was Beaumont," Leach said. "I knew they matched up perfectly with us."

Added Lundbland:. "I really thought we could make it to the semifinals. We underperformed."

Leading the way for Beaumont was 145-pounder Chandler Schuelke and 171-pounder Kamron Khodadadi, who had pinfall victories. Terrill Sidener (112), Anthony Freeman (140)  Ricardo Montes (160) and Anthony Gordon (heavyweight) were also winners.

One wrestler that wasn't there for the Cougars was Amanda Hedley, who was competing at the CIF Regional girls' wresting invitational.

"She's a great wrestler and I know she would have given our 130-pounder some trouble," Leach said of the defending regional girls' champion at 126 pounds. "We may have gotten a little lucky in that regard."

The wrestling is not yet over for the Cougars. They will now get ready for next week's CIF Individuals beginning Friday at Ontario Colony High School. Lundbland will take 10 wrestlers to the meet as they look to advance to the CIF Masters Meet on Feb. 25.

Lundbland said the Cougars should have a good chance of qualifying wrestlers for the Masters Meet at 112, 119, 145, 160, 189 pounds and at heavyweight.
"We got some contenders," he said.

For 215-pounder Evan Roberts, it will be a new experience.

"I really don't know what to expect," said Roberts, a first-year wrestler. "I have nothing to lose."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?