And needless to say, it was a happy ride home for the Bruins.

Branham rolled to a 53-20 win over the Saints to push their dual match record to 5-0. Santa Teresa slipped to 4-1 in the division with the loss.

Bruins won nine of the 14 matches contested, eight by fall and one by technical fall, to pull out the lopsided team win over the Saints.

Mike Durham roughed up his opponent at 105 pounds 15-0 for a tech fall. After that, he pinned in 1:33 of the first round at 114 pounds for the Bruins.

Danny Scholl won by fall at 3:53 of the second round at 137, and Dave Anderson followed with a quick pin in 1:06 at 142 pounds.

Doug Shehan, like Scholl, pinned at 3:53 of the second round at 154 and Jace Guibor pinned with 33 seconds left in his match at 162.

The Bruins finished off the Saints with three quick first-round pins. Tom Swale won by fall with a second left in the first round at 173, Kenny Shearer pinned in 53 seconds at 191 and Jordan Ashsapour pinned in just 43 seconds at 277.

Branham has just two dual matches remaining--Feb. 3 at home against Gunderson and Feb. 10 at Leigh (both at 6:30 p.m.)--before taking part in the BVAL finals on Feb. 12 at Lincoln. Top placers there advance to the Central Coast Section tournament Feb. 25 and 26 at Independence.

Kelsey nails fifth

Pioneer sophomore Nick Kelsey wrestled his way to a fifth-place finish at 147 pounds the Overfelt Classic held Jan. 22 in East San Jose.

Kelsey won again last week, but it wasn't enough to keep the Mustangs from falling 47-30 to Prospect in a West Valley Division match. The decision left each squad 3-2 in the division.

Kelsey (147), Brian Watts (121), Tuan Nguyen (132) and Scott Nordby (137) each won by fall and Steve Giorgianni (114) won by forfeit, but the Mustangs couldn't overcome three pins, a tech fall and four forfeits for Prospect.

In other action in the division, pins by Brian Herz at 147 pounds and Ryan Hong at 162 sparked Leland to a 42-24 win over San Jose Academy. Hong won by fall in just 1:22 of the first round for the Chargers, who evened their record at 2-2 with the victory.

Volden a champion

Keith Volden, an eighth grader at Dartmouth Middle School, was an individual champion at the county wrestling finals held last month.

Volden, a three year varsity wrestler for Dartmouth, posted a 12-0 record at 110 pounds this past season under the direction of head coach Mark Small.

Keith's older brother Luke, a member of the Leigh High School wrestling team, was an assistant coach for Dartmouth.