Quincy holds off late charge from Bulldogs

QUINCY — The Jacks, on the strength of several close victories in the lower weights, survived a late rally from Ellensburg as they defeated the visiting Bulldogs 35-25 in a CWAC dual meet Thursday.

"It's big…for us its big," said Quincy coach Manual Ybarra of his team's victory over Ellensburg. "They're a tough team."

With Quincy clinging to a 23-19 lead late in the dual meet, the Jacks' Max Melburn faced off with Ellensburg's Tyler Weyand at 215 pounds. Melburn fought his way out of a dangerous near-fall situation in the first round, and found himself trailing 5-1 entering the second period.

In the second round, Weyand quickly took Melburn down and turned him to his back. As the Ellensburg wrestler appeared close to securing the fall and giving Ellensburg their first lead of the dual meet, the referee stopped the match and disqualified Weyand for a biting infraction.

According to the official working the match, he stopped the match after becoming aware of the possible biting infraction to see if an incident had occurred. The referee then examined Melburn's arm, and upon visually confirming a set of upper and lower teeth marks on the Quincy wrestler's forearm, disqualified Weyand from the match as is required by rule.

The incident brought to a strange conclusion what was otherwise an excellent dual meet between two evenly matched teams.

At 112 pounds, Quincy struck first when Carlos Magana defeated Ellensburg's Zach Heaton 6-3. Magana built a 4-2 lead after the first round on a pair of early takedowns. The Quincy wrestler's aggressiveness was awarded when Heaton was penalized for stalling in both the second and third rounds, giving Magana all the points he needed for the victory.

Jared Reyes kept the momentum going for Quincy at 119 pounds, fending off a deep shot by Ellensburg's Tait Tucker early in the first round and from there taking control of the match. Reyes went on to win a 6-1 decision.

After an Ellensburg win at 125 pounds, Quincy's Gabe Lindquist received a forfeit at 130 pounds that gave the Jacks a 12-3 lead. Despite the forfeit by Ellensburg, the 130-pound bout was wrestled as an exhibition. In the match, Lindquist pinned Alex Eastman in the first round.

The highest scoring match of the evening occurred at 135 pounds, where Quincy's Dan Somers rallied from a 5-1 second round deficit to defeat Ellensburg's Ryne Clark 14-11. Somers outscored Clark 8-3 in the second round, scoring a 2-point near-fall and taking the Ellensburg wrestler down three times, the final takedown coming as time expired in the second round.

Clark put up a comeback of his own in the third round, tying the match at 11 on his second takedown of the period. With 29 seconds remaining, Clark gave Somers an escape in hopes of scoring the winning takedown in the closing seconds of the match. However, Somers defended Clark's takedown attempt and countered effectively, capping the match off with a final takedown just before the whistle.

Henry Hernandez, who moved up to 140 pounds to take on Ellensburg's Chase Haberman. Hernandez erased the Ellensburg wrestler's 5-2 lead with a lateral throw and 3-point near-fall in the final 20 seconds of the match to earn a 7-5 lead.

"That's experience," said Ybarra of Hernandez's winning throw. "He's doing something we taught."

"When you're down…you have to throw. It doesn't always work out, but it's nice when it does."

At 145 pounds, Colby Melburn won another close match for Quincy, knocking off Ellensburg's Keane Simpson 4-0.

"I think we were fortunate to win the close ones," remarked Ybarra. "When you're in a close battle, its nice to win the close ones."

Quincy 35, Ellensburg 25

112 — Carlos Magana (Q) dec. Zach Heaton (E), 6-3; 119 — Jared Reyes (Q) dec. Tait Tucker (E), 6-1; 125 — Ryan Bowen (E) dec. Armando Herrera (Q), 12-6; 130 — Gabe Lindquist (Q) win by forfeit; 135 — Dan Somers (Q) dec. Ryne Clark (E) 14-11; 140 — Henry Hernandez (Q) dec. Chase Haberman (E), 7-5; 145 - Colby Melburn (Q) dec. Keane Simpson (E), 4-0; 152 — Thomas Johnson (E) pin Daniel Cavasos (Q), 1:36; 160 — Thomas Parmerlee (E) m.d. Kyle Arnall (Q) 11-3; 171 - Nick Melburn (Q) dec. Chris Yarwood (E), 7-3; 189 — Joe Boisso (E) pin Kelly Schwint (Q), 1:18; 215 — Max Melburn (Q) win by disqualification; 285 — Blake Nichols (E) pin Michael Reyes (Q) 0:25; 103 — Tony Lee (Q) win by forfeit.