Hayden Barton (138) has his hand raised after wrestling a tough opponent for 1st place at the Bella Vista tournament.

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - (Please note that this article was written in January, and its publication was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.) The Mitchell Marauders Middle School wrestling team took on competitors from throughout the greater Sacramento area at local wrestling tournaments with impressive results. The Marauders’ season started in December when they competed at the Smedberg Middle School tournament in Sacramento and had top-three finishes in 15 divisions. Notable individual grappler results included, for the Girls division, Erica Banks (1st place), Peyton Ollinger (2nd place), Harmony Navarette-Williams (3rd place) and Jayden McCullar (3rd place). For the varsity boys, Moses Alvarez (2nd place), Jonathan Orozco (2nd place), and Mario Covarubius (3rd place) stood out in their respective divisions; and for the JV boys Caleb Evangelista (1st place) and Hayden Barton (1st place) dominated their weight classes, while Aiden Senner (2nd place), Asher Jiang (3rd place), Jaekob Mendoza (3rd place), Connor Freemyer (3rd place), Bentley Medina (3rd place), and Pryce Harlin (3rd place) finished the day with wins in their divisions to collect a medal.

The Marauder Wrestlers visited the Bella Vista High School Winter Classic Wrestling Tournament on January 13 where Hayden Barton again won 1st place (138) for his second first place finish of the season, and teammates Asher Jiang (83), Kaleb Evangelista (112), and Peyton Ollinger (122) grappled to hard fought 3rd-place finishes.