MONTAGUE — Wrestling matches during the school day - Assembly Duals - are one of high school sports' fastest-growing trends, and Montague was able to celebrate another one Friday, hanging on to edge Hesperia 40-36 in the Wildcats' first-ever match in its new home gym.
Montague hosted an Assembly Dual last year against Grant, and it sounds as though it will be a regular feature of the team's schedule. Coach Kris Maddox said after Friday's match that Montague and Hesperia have informally agreed to reprise Friday's dual at Hesperia next season, and the Wildcats are set to visit Grant for one this week, with the two pairs of teams planning to swap home matches in future years.
The atmosphere was sizzling for Friday's dual, which brought high school students into the gym to cheer on their classmates. So fired up were the wrestlers that after Chayse Maddox picked up a pin victory at 126 pounds to get Montague on the board, he leapt a few feet in the air to celebrate.
Coach Maddox, Chayse's dad, said Chayse and his brother Gavyn, who scored an 8-0 win during the dual, were both nervous going into the match, understandable given all the newness at hand.
"When you throw a lot of things at them and you wrestle in front of your own students, in the new gym for the first time on a brand new mat, against a good quality team, there were a lot of nerves playing into that," Maddox said.
The match came down to the final bout, in which heavyweight Maverick Osborne faced Hesperia's Noah Walker. (By this time, students who rode the school bus had to leave, but a small group stayed behind to keep the intensity going in the gym.) Up four points thanks to two voided weight classes in Montague's favor leading up to his bout, Osborne just had to avoid disaster, and he did, earning a 3-2 victory to lock up the team dual.
Maddox said the topic of the team score did not come up as he prepared Osborne to face Walker.
Montague's Maverick Osborne (right) battles with Hesperia's Noah Walker in the final bout of Friday's Assembly Dual match at Montague. Osborne picked up a 3-2 win, securing his team's 43-36 triumph.
"I'm sure he looked at the score and had that in the back of his head," Maddox said. "We
try to calm ourselves and focus on the things we can control. I think I
told him, don't force anything and just take what comes and take
advantage when
that opportunity happens. He got that nice big bear hug in the
first period and got a takedown, and that was huge. I think he went a
little too passive after that. I would've liked to see him stay on his
offense and try to open the score
up a little bit more, but it was good to see him do what he had to do
to win."
The Wildcats stormed back after falling behind 18-0 and 24-12. Gavyn Maddox's 8-0 win started the run for Montague, and Fletcher Thommen followed with a pin to pull the Wildcats within two points, at 24-22. Michael Jones answered a Hesperia pin with one of his own, and that set Montague up to benefit when Hesperia, due to injuries and illnesses, was unable to field wrestlers at 190 or 215 pounds. Isaac French and Edwings Rosas-Hernandez took forfeit wins at those weight classes.
In addition to Chayse Maddox's pin, Gibson Smith also secured a pin victory.
Maddox said the volume of pins in the match worked out for the Wildcats this time, but he's tried to impress upon the team the value of losing close rather than getting pinned. In higher-stakes matches, those hidden points can be the difference between winning and losing.
"You don't always have to pin to win and by the same aspect, you don't always have to win your match to win the dual," Maddox said. "We've really been trying to preach that and talk about that in
practice. The last
couple years, we've either been a pin team or we're getting pinned, and
that's unfortunate. I'd like to see good losses, the 5-4s and the 3-2s."
With the win, the 'Cats moved to 7-1 in duals early in the season. While there's growth to be made, Montague boasts upperclassmen experience aplenty with the likes of Thommen, Jones, French and Osborne among others, giving the Wildcats a strong base - and good role models for the younger wrestlers.
"In the middle part of our lineup, there are some guys that have been putting points up
for the last couple of years," Maddox said. "They talk to the young guys, just stick with the process. It might not be this year. It
might not be next year, but trust the process and good things are going to happen the
next couple of years, and these upperclassmen are a testament to that."
