The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - For the first time in nearly ten years, Dayton High School has a wrestling team. Sophomore Josh Hartwell will wear Bulldog colors while training in Waitsburg.

Josh’s family moved to Dayton about 10 years ago. Josh has always been active and enjoyed any sport where he could use his strength to win, sometimes as a way to let go of his anger without getting in trouble.

He said he began asking Dayton if they could have a boxing team while he was still in elementary school, but never found any serious takers. Then he asked about wrestling, but no one was interested in getting a team started.

Until this year, Hartwell played basketball for something to do in the winter. He still isn’t exactly sure how everything happened as far as the wrestling goes. He said this fall during soccer he half-heartedly asked Dayton’s Athletic Director, Heather Clarys about wrestling.

Then one day he was called out of class to the office. All he had to do was sign the papers and he would be able to wrestle. He also has a couple of dedicated Waitsburg parents that provide transportation so Josh can get to practices.

Waitsburg Coach Lanny Adams is excited to have Josh on his team and describes Josh as a hard worker and fast learner, with a lot of determination. Josh is benefitting from the experience of his teammates, and Coach Adams sees a lot of potential in the young man.

With weather postponing or cancelling the first three scheduled meets, the Waitsburg and Dayton wrestlers finally started their season at the Mac-Hi tournament this weekend. Hartwell said he had a few butterflies when they got there. After weigh in, he was even more nervous when he learned he was 6/10 of a pound over his 138-pound limit and was going to wrestle at 148.

Weather in the region had cancelled other tournaments, so many regional schools of all size came to Mac-Hi.

In the first round Hartwell faced Rice Quintana of Kamiakin and was pinned after 2:33. Hartwell met Donovan Morales of Southrigde in the next round and walked away with his first career victory, pinning Morales at the 1:38 mark. Josh then beat Carlos Garcia of Riverview by technical fall. Hartwell lost his last match in the double elimination tournament to Damon Sawyer of Irrigon.

Coach Adams was very proud of Hartwell saying he did well and fought hard.

“Josh did very well for his first wrestling tournament. He had a good showing. He made some mistakes, but we anticipated them just because of his experience level,” Adams said.