craigdailypress.com

LAS VEGAS -- On Thursday, Trenton Duarte learned what it was like to fly. Today he hopes to learn what it's like to be a Moffat County High School varsity wrestler.

"I was more nervous to fly," the sophomore said. "I'm excited to start the season on varsity."

Duarte wrestled in three varsity meets last year. Today he opens the season as the top wrestler at 152 pounds for the Bulldogs.

Sophomore Cody Norman has flown before, but he has never wrestled on varsity.

"It's been a dream of mine since I was a little kid," the 135-pounder said. "I'm going in hoping to learn what it takes."

Junior Daniel Cramblett learned what it took at the end of the season his sophomore year. This will be his first trip to Vegas.

"This is the first time I've actually earned my way on varsity," he said. "This is a fun way to start (the season) because there isn't any pressure."

The Green Valley Duals is set up so that the Bulldogs will have two duals tonight and then wrestle through a 16-team bracket Saturday. The teams will be seeded one through 16 after today's sessions.

"It's a good way to start the season because wrestling in duals builds a team together," coach Roman Gutierrez said. "We have a lot of younger guys, so it will be good to build them up with the team."

Senior Eric Fredrickson is eager to see how the seven sophomores will perform, as well.

"When you're young, you tend to make silly mistakes because you're thinking too fast," he said. "Vegas is a good place to learn."

Western Slope rival Montrose will be here again this year. Other teams will be from Nevada, California and Utah.

The Bulldogs have made a habit of wrestling well in their trips to Nevada. They've won all tournaments but one in the 10 years they've competed. Last year, they avenged their only loss by defeating Temecula, Calif., in the final dual.

Moffat County wrestling has left its impression in this Western state.

"We've had up to eight video cameras from other teams on our kids during matches," Gutierrez said. "It's a confidence builder for the kids when they hear teams say 'do the Moffat' because teams have named moves after us."

In past years, the Bulldogs have traveled to the city of lights in January, but after some of the wrestlers returned sick, Gutierrez looked for an earlier tournament.

"If they get sick in January it means they don't recover until right before regionals," he said. "Now we get it out of the way early."