A full weekend of wrestling kicks off Friday at the Hughson High gym with the first day of the renamed Mel Lindstrom Duals (formerly known as the Hughson Christmas Duals).

The event honors Lindstrom, who was a Class of 1965 Hughson wrestler who joined the Marines after graduation and saw action in Vietnam. He  was a longtime supporter of the wrestling program until his death earlier this year.

The action begins Friday at 10 a.m. with the varsity competition. Eight schools – Hughson, Turlock, Pitman, Golden Valley, Escalon, Summerville, Linden and Big Valley Christian – will be divided into two pools. Each school will wrestle the other three teams in its pool to set up the final four dual meets where the top finishers in each pool face each other as do the second-, third- and fourth-place schools.

On Saturday, junior varsity wrestlers representing 15 schools will compete starting at 10 a.m. in individual brackets at each weight class.

The event wraps up Sunday beginning at 8:30 a.m. with the junior program featuring young wrestlers in kindergarten through eighth grade. Between 300 and 400 athletes are expected to compete, including 85 from the Huskies Wrestling Club.

Hughson Coach Joey La Rosa is eager to see how all his wrestlers stack up against the competition. The Huskies’ varsity team has had three dual meets already this season and all have been close. Hughson defeated Ceres 39-38, then lost 40-37 to Livingston and 29-28 to Central Valley.
“We’ve had some injuries and sickness, but I’ve been proud of the effort and growth we’ve shown,” La Rosa said. “We're excited to host our home tournament and scrap in our own gym. We are headed in the right direction. We just have to keep 'stacking pennies,’ as we tell the kids.”