A two-sided story for sure Friday night at the Hardwood Teepee.

On one side, the boys opened its varsity wrestling calendar against perennial state power Bellmont. Memories of a year ago at Bellmont brought thoughts of a huge crowd, dozens of tournament championship banners hanging from the rafters of the Wigwam, and a very entertaining dual match between the Braves and Warriors as the two tried to recapture an incredible dual experience.

On the other side, mid match at Wawasee brought a chilling silence as the reality of an injury sullied what was otherwise a very jovial evening.

The final score from Friday night read Bellmont 50, Wawasee 27. The Braves admittedly were the better overall side, scoring seven pins and a tech fall among its impressive road show. Wawasee had its moments, scoring pins and wins from some of its big guns. But the pindrop silence in the gym as Ethan Rodriguez lay motionless for over 10 minutes put a lot of things in perspective.

Rodriguez, a junior wrestling at 144, was sparring with Sam Wolpert. A takedown by Wolpert had Rodriguez trying to work out of a cradle. But as Wolpert rolled over and got the mat slap at 1:44 from referee Josh Howard, Rodriguez didn’t move. Wolpert recognized Rodriguez hadn’t moved and offered him a hand, then knelt down to check on him. As Howard approached, so did Wawasee athletic trainer Robin Berghoff.

And so did Wawasee assistant coach and father Miguel Rodriguez along with head coach Jamie Salazar. And eventually EMTs as Rodriguez couldn’t move his limbs. Not one person in the packed crowd made a sound as all eyes and thoughts were on the young man on the mat. He was taken to KCH for observation.

An update from Friday night to Saturday had Ethan regain feeling in his fingers and toes, and eventually began to have full movement of his limbs again. Miguel Rodriguez noted Ethan was said to have had suffered a severely pinched nerve.

The super scary scenario overtook the mood of the night, and rightly so.

“When you have a situation like that, it doesn’t matter who it is, you don’t want to see that happen to anyone,” Salazar said after the match Friday night. “He’s one of our leaders and he expected to do great things this season. Our prayers are with him and his family. We hope to have him back on the mat someday, but right now his health is priority number one.”

Wrestling would resume, and while the matches would retake a formal of normalcy, it became a formality. But, from an athletic standpoint, there were some bright spots for the Warriors to close out the night.

Carson Nine would pick up a pin 26 seconds into the second period of the 157-pound matchup against Landon Rich. Benji Brace in the 165 standoff with nationally-ranked Duke Myers had Brace stand his ground into the second period before the University of Michigan recruit finished off a pin with six seconds left in the period. Brace, in just his second year of organized wrestling, showed a grit that Salazar is looking for in his roster.

“Benji has only been at it a couple years, and draws a D-1 recruit right out of the gate. That’s a tough, tough matchup,” Salazar said. “You look at him, he goes almost two full periods with one of the top wrestlers in the state, hats off to him. With a lot of these new guys, they forget sometimes what they learn in the room, and some of that is the situations they’re in with the crowd and the lights, they’re not used to it. There were a couple other matchups where we saw some good things, but small technical things got them beat. It’s fixable.”

Wawasee’s three returning state finalists all picked up wins, Kaleb Salazar and Cam Senter both by pin, and Donnie Blair toughed out a 6-3 win over Cole Mendez to close the night. Titus Taylor also had a pin for the Warriors, a first-round roll-up.

Wawasee continues varsity action in hosting the Wawasee November Duals next Saturday.

Wawasee v. Bellmont

Varsity Matches

215 – Keagan Martin (B) pin Treyvonn Senders 1:09  6-0
285 – Grady Baker (B) dec. Derek Morrison 7-2  9-0
106 – Ben Mills (B) pin Karlee Clevenger :59  15-0
113 – Kaleb Salazar (W) pin Ethan Curtis 3:12  15-6
120 – Henry Faroute (B) tech fall Jaxon Senter 16-1  20-6
126 – Cam Senter (W) pin Will Franze 1:10  20-12
132 – Kevin Loshe (B) pin Jay Miller-Harris 5:56  26-12
138 – Titus Taylor (W) pin Chandler Thomas 1:27  26-18
144 – Sam Wolpert (B) pin Ethan Rodriguez 1:49  32-18
150 – Blake Luginbill (B) pin Brody Young 1:34  38-18
157 – Carson Nine (W) pin Landon Rich 2:26  38-24
165 – Duke Myers (B) pin Benji Brace 3:54  44-24
175 – Xavier Palacios (B) pin Will Hoy 1:04  50-24
190 – Donnie Blair (W) dec. Cole Mendez 6-3  50-27

JV Matches

132 – Cavon Tom (W) pin Joel Franklin 3:23
165 – Alex Dibble (W) pin Isaiah Herman 3:26
165 – Jared Franklin (B) pin Dom Brown 2:53