Wawasee swept a pair of opponents en route to a 5-0 weekend at the Wawasee November Duals.

Wawasee head coach Frank Bumgardner paused in mid-thought shortly after the conclusion of Saturday’s Wawasee November Duals. Deciding on whether he had ever coached a team to a perfect result against an opponent, he pivoted slightly and offered a less grandiose perspective.

“Obviously, you need to be critical to some extent and it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns today,” spun Bumgardner. “With that said, there was a lot of great stuff there that we did. It’s just a tough time of year and the one holiday that is based solely around food. Now we are asking 15 to 17-year-old kids to watch their weights to the tenth of a pound. It’s a tough ask, a lot of discipline. Our kids did a great job with it, not a lot of weight issues. It was just get back to the grind and get competing hard again.”

Bumgardner’s squad could have used every excuse under the sun to have been less than sharp, but instead went 5-0 in convincing fashion at the Duals, pitching perfect shutouts of 84-0 on both South Bend Washington and Fort Wayne South Side. The Warriors also started the Northern Lakes Conference season on a high note with a 61-18 run over Warsaw, and added sound 63-13 and 53-19 wins over Fairfield and North Miami, respectively, in a full day of work in the Hardwood Teepee.

Logan Stuckman, Most Outstanding Wrestler, 2022 Wawasee November Duals

In the 13 contested matches against the Panthers and Archers, Wawasee earned 12 pins in the first round and one in the second round to finish the jobs. Overall in the five duals, Wawasee went 42-9 in contested matchups, scoring 35 wins via pinfall. In the conference showdown against the Tigers, Wawasee got a jump on seedings by winning 11 of the 13 matchups, eight of those by pinfall, a trio of third round slaps for the Warriors in key matchups that could come calling again in January. Cam Zimmerman weathered a tough matchup against Coo Walters to get the pin at 4:56, Kaleb Salazar and Bryce McNees went round and round before Salazar finally polished off Brown with four seconds to go in the match, and Ethan Rodriguez ran his game, but needed a third period to put away a tough Aaron Ross.

The Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Duals was Wawasee’s Logan Stuckman at 138, part of the dominant Wawasee roster which had plenty of undefeated options to choose from. Stuckman claimed a pair of forfeits against Washington and South Side, and put away Warsaw’s Leo Castro in a tidy 53 seconds. Stuckman had his way with Fairfield’s Marco Garcia before closing matters with a pin at 3:25 and worked a lot of offense on North Miami’s Ryan Meredith before recording a pin at 5:08.

For the day, Stuckman didn’t allow a defensive point while posting 17 takedowns and a near fall in a dominant performance.

Wawasee also had seven others undefeated on the day, with Gavin Malone and Titus Taylor with four pins and a forfeit, and Ethan Rodriguez with four pins and a decision. Hunter Miller had three pins, a tech fall and a major, Carson Nine and Zimmerman had three pins and two forfeits, and Salazar had two pins, a decision and two forfeits.

“We had a lot of kids step forward today and wrestle well,” Bumgardner said. “A lot of pins, a lot of patience on the mat. That’s what we want to see.”

Wawasee moves to 5-1 on the season and sets its sights on Thursday with another home dual against East Noble, a 6:45 p.m. JV first bell.

Here’s the full Wawasee report from the November Duals.

Match #1 Round 1
Wawasee defeated South Bend Washington 84-0