Benefield: Ukiah wrestling teammates' friendly competition

Wyatt Myers’ first wrestling loss came at the hands of Cody Shepard in the eighth grade. They’ve been beating each other up ever since.

The Ukiah High School wrestling teammates are two of the best grapplers around. They also happen to be on the same team and in the same weight class.

The battles Myers and Shepard have at practices might just be the toughest competition they face until the postseason.

And that’s the way they like it.

“It’s really, like, fake friendly in the practice room,” Myers said. “Yeah, I’m going to work with him, I’m going to be nice to him, but in the back of my mind I’m counting up all these moves. I’m your friend, but I’m planning to beat you.

“No doubt about it, in the practice room is where we learn,” he said.

Clearly they are good students - of each other and the sport. Myers is currently ranked fifth in the North Coast Section at 170 pounds and Shepard is sixth. Both see themselves rising on that list before the postseason. Both are targeting a top-three finish at the NCS tournament, which begets a spot at the state meet.

The battle at 170 presents some decision-making puzzles for Wildcats coach Thomas Fragoza. Before every dual meet, he decides who wrestles where, because two of his best guys are at the same weight.

“It’s all matchups,” he said. “If another team has a certain kid at a certain weight, depending on what style matches up best with that kid, it’s pretty convenient for me. When it comes to team competition, I’m a kid in a candy shop. How can I go wrong?”

Fragoza said as Myers and Shepard battle it out every practice, they and the entire Wildcat squad become stronger.

“They get better every day,” Fragoza said. “It makes them better teammates, makes them better friends. It teaches them how to deal with defeat better, too. There isn’t a day that goes by that those guys don’t get taken down.”

And a little dose of beatdown goes a long way.

“The only downside is that I get upset when he stops my best moves. He knows how I do them,” Shepard said.

“We are both pretty tough wrestlers and we just battle each other every day,” he said. “How you practice is how you play. If I’m always practicing at the high level, then I’m heading into the tournament that same way.”

Myers and Shepard, neck and neck in the rankings, are a crucial pair in the Wildcats’ army of seniors focused on winning the North Bay League team title after sharing it with Windsor last year.

After that? A team title at NCS would be nice.

“Everyone is going hard,” Shepard said. “The leaders are going hard, it pushes the other kids.”

The leaders are Ukiah’s seven seniors, a rock-solid lineup of athletes that fill out the Wildcats’ roster.

“We have seven kids ranked in the section and I think five of them are seniors,” Fragoza said. “That’s pretty good as far as the wrestling goes, as far as the leadership goes.”

Bookending Myers and Shepard in the weight classes are two other ranked wrestlers, Manny Martinez at 182 pounds and Jessie Espinola at 160 pounds.

“Even Fragoza said he’s never seen so much talent in one little spot,” Myers said.

“The competition in the room and the level is super high,” Shepard said.

And come tournament time in February, Myers will likely slide down to 160 and Shepard, a more natural 170, will stay at that weight.

But until then, the two teammates are trying to get the best of each other at practice every afternoon.

“Mentally, sometimes those two kids aren’t used to getting beat up, so on a day where one of them is just on fire and beating a kid up, it can be pretty tough on him,” the coach said. “That’s my job to say ‘Hey, look, not everybody gets to practice with a kid that is ranked in the section at the same weight as they are.”

Both Myers and Shepard are thankful for each other, for the beatdowns and beat-ups they’ve suffered at the hands of each other since way back in eighth grade.

“He’s been my wrestling partner for so long I don’t know how good of a wrestler I’d be without Wyatt,” Shepard said. “I’m just thankful for a partner like Wyatt.”

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”