It’s been a successful summer for a group of dedicated members of the Cloverdale Wrestling Club (CWC), making their mark in national caliber youth tournaments.
Led by coach Ian Jones, the competing athletes include locals Kagen Jones, brother Dylan Jones, Ayal Fichtelberg, David Alvarez, Noah Martinez and Xavier Hurtado. Athletes from neighboring areas include Gabriel Ambriz, Shane Guill, Austin Fredrickson, Jon Fredrickson and Dominic Mertens.
The CWC has been at the core of a growing movement to promote and cultivate youth wrestling in Cloverdale for the last few years, helping to reinvigorate a sport that has gained great participation at both the youth and high school levels.
“A small group of passionate athletes started wrestling out of my kitchen and friends’ garages,” Ian Jones said as he recalled the humble beginnings of the CWC.
Although many youth wrestling tournaments have been canceled across the country this summer, others have been held with strict social distancing protocols in place.
“All tournaments we’ve gone to have had temperature checks before we entered the facility for competition,” Ian Jones said. “They’re having competitors and spectators wear masks, sign wavers and be very cautious about social distancing.”
That was the case at the Idaway Open in Idaho on June 22-23, with a handful of CWC athletes competing against many of the region’s best. The result was spectacular, with four of five local athletes earning top-five hardware.
“The boys wrestled their butts off at the Idaway Open,” Jones reported. “Many of our kids wrestled state champions and state qualifiers from all over. I was very proud of these boys, not a single one quit and some of them had six matches in less than an hour and a half.”
Claiming medals at the tournament were Gabriel Ambriz (second place), Dylan Jones (fifth place), Kagen Jones (fifth place) and Ayal Fichtelberg (fifth place). Shane Guill got the vote for the unofficial “Coaches Award.”
The following week, the CWC had three athletes competing at a youth tournament in Farmington, Utah, with all three participants bringing home medals in their weight class.
On July 4, a few members of the club participated in a 5K “Freedom Run,” garnering sponsorship to help cover expenses for travel and lodging to future wrestling tournaments.
At press time the CWC was preparing to send a small contingent to one of the biggest youth tournaments in the nation in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 17-18. The club was scheduled to compete at the Junior Olympic tournament in Las Vegas slated later this month, but the competition has been postponed.
