Dragon wrestlers edged by Petaluma

In a Sonoma County League dual-match battle between longtime wrestling rivals Wednesday night in Golton Hall, Sonoma Valley High School junior Dalton Elster’s continued to make short work of his heavyweight division opponents with “don’t blink” pinning performances and, this time, flirted with school history.

While Elster capped the evening in the “Dragons’ Den” with an eight-second pin being just a couple of ticks over Ryan Jensen’s school record for the fastest pin at six seconds, set more than a decade ago, Sonoma’s grapplers still ended up dropping a tough 39-36 SCL decision to Petaluma.

Posting Dragon wins along with Elster’s first-round heavyweight pinning of Pacheco, was another first-round, sub-minute victory turned in by sophomore Noah Bartolome, who pinned Gierden in 38 seconds at 162 pounds; and junior Austin Beltran’s first-round default victory over Laisom after leading 5-1 at 222 pounds.

Winning by way of forfeits for the Dragons, who had to forfeit four bouts as they’ve done all season, were seniors Jack Biaggi and Jacob Little at 173 and 182 pounds, respectively, and freshman Valentino Battaglini at 195.

Sustaining Sonoma’s losses were senior Jake Randuch’s 6-5 nipping by Machado at 154 pounds; frosh Nick Biaggi’s 6-2 by Reynolds at 134; junior Jake McDonald’s 15-2 to Russell at 147; and junior David Price’s 17-1 technical-fall loss to Thompson at 137.

The Dragon wrestlers will hold both their home finale and SCL dual finale hosting Piner at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Golton Hall, and will honor the seniors in a pre-match ceremony.