Doherty wins on night when few varsity wrestlers faced each other

Liberty seniors Chris Fuller and Dylan Knight celebrated senior night in street clothes, as Doherty beat the Lancers 42-30 in a JV-wrestler filled varsity-dual meet.

Wednesday, 10 varsity wrestlers — three Spartans and seven Lancers — sat out the dual at Liberty High School.

“It is what it is,” Doherty coach Dave Kalbach said. “You never want this many forfeits. You want to wrestle. But it doesn’t always work out that way.”

And for those varsity wrestlers present, most went up against inferior opponents.

“A lot of our guys are wrestling JV guys tonight, and you don’t want to embarrass anyone,” Kalbach said. “So you tell them to hold back just a bit.”

It didn’t show.

Doherty swept the first five matches in convincing fashion. In the lightest classes, Estevon Lovato and Jonathan Garcia secured pins for the Spartans over JV wrestlers in 5:43 and 56 seconds, respectively.

Then, Doherty’s Garret Stretcher won a 9-5 decision over varsity wrestler Alec Dowell, before the Spartans grabbed two more wins over Liberty’s backups at 126 and 132.

“We have some guys sick and we have some guys injured. And our seniors, unfortunately, might be done for the season,” Liberty coach Shawn Springsteen said.

There were some bright spots for Liberty though.

Sophomore Josh Hartley (138) and junior Jonathan Sigley (145) provided the Lancers with their only non-forfeit wins of the night. Hartley, a sophomore, pinned Doherty backup Niles Primrose in 2:48 before Sigley pinned Kurdo Sharif in 4:42.

“Josh did well tonight, but I wish it was against their top guy,” Springsteen said.

The last match of the night took place in the 160-pound weight class, between Doherty’s Brandon Supernaw, the No. 6 ranked wrestler in the state at 160, and JV wrestler JT Martin.

And surprisingly, it was the most engaging match of the night for both sides.

Supernaw threw Martin down over and over for three rounds, before he won a 17-1 technical fall.

“It may sound funny, but I thought Martin was great. The way my guy came up from JV and kept getting up off his back showed a lot. He didn’t get pinned,” Springsteen said. “On the other side, Supernaw said he was trying some different moves Wednesday, just days after he won the Colorado Metro League Championships on Saturday.

“I went out knowing it would be less intense of a match,” Supernaw said. “So I wanted to try out some different stuff. It helped prepare me. I wouldn’t have thrown a lot of the moves I did tonight against a more experienced wrestler.”

The score was 30-12 Doherty, before forfeits at 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285 ended the night early.