Thursday night’s Northern Lakes Conference dual will go down as a loss for Wawasee, a 44-34 setback at NorthWood, but it was a night and day turnaround from where the team finished Tuesday in its home loss to East Noble.

“Obviously the score doesn’t define what we wanted, but I’m happy with the big improvements that became from Tuesday until now,” said Wawasee head coach Jamie Salazar. “I think we’re going to continue that buildup, continue to go.”

A lackluster performance of sorts Tuesday looked a lot different Thursday, where the Wawasee bench had a new enthusiasm against its NLC rivals and the matches were more hotly contested. While the loss to the Panthers puts Wawasee at 5-1 overall in the NLC, the Warriors can still claim a share with a win over Mishawaka next Wednesday, the Cavemen 6-0 in the NLC after a 30-point win over Northridge tonight.

In the category of ‘a loss is still a win’ was the matchup at 175 between Wawasee’s Brody Young and NorthWood’s Austin King. Young, who typically wrestles the undercard, surprisingly held his own against King, who was a placer at the Al Smith Invite. Through two periods, King only led 7-5 after Young managed to get a spin on the NorthWood stud and score a takedown late in the second. King would compose himself in the third and finally wear a gassed Young down, scoring a pin at 5:38, but the tone had been set.

Isaac Ruff was another one who didn’t score points for Wawasee, but held his own when he certainly didn’t have to on paper. Paired against one of the top 126s in the conference in Calix Truex, Ruff didn’t run a lot of offense, but he worked out of a pair of jams in the first period, then another in the second before a pin at 3:02. Even Trayvon Senders, who has had a tough go lately on the varsity line, brought some positive reviews from Salazar after taking Brady King into the second period in the 215 card.

“The biggest thing in practice was we had a heart-to-heart talking about the whole concept of look at your brother next to you. They won’t be here forever. Enjoy this time,” said Salazar. “Live in the moment and embrace it. We’ll keep this PG, but you gotta let them drop. You gotta have a set. Don’t go out there too worried about people taking a shot and worrying about what they are going to do rather than have them worrying about stopping you. That was the mentality switch that we did.

“Hey, wrestle for fun. Don’t wrestle because you’re scared. Let them worry about that. If you miss a shot, you miss a shot. It’s how you regroup, how you build up and continue to build this program.”

The nitty gritties of the night came down to a couple matches Wawasee didn’t think it would have lost, but then a couple of swing matches that turned the tide of the dual.

NorthWood scored a surprise pin early in the night, with Joey Mitschelen getting Carson Nine to the mat quickly in the first, and after Nine worked out of the slowly developing pin combo, Mitschelen once again cradled Nine to the mat and got the pin at 1:03. Wawasee also thought it had an advantage at 113, where Garrett Tittle and Trevor Monsen squared off, but Monsen quickly gained advantage with a 10-point first period buoyed by a near fall four close to time. Tittle nearly reversed course in the third, getting a takedown and almost had Monsen done, but couldn’t get the pin combo called for six, but rather Monsen wriggled out of the hold, and eventually the match with a 12-8 decision.

On the plus side were several good wins for the Warriors, with Ethan Rodriguez and Cam Senter both getting first-period pins, Moses Howard posting an impressive tech fall, Derek Morrison moving up to heavyweight and spoiling Bryson Davis’ birthday with a pin, Cylus Melching getting his first NLC pin, and Cavan Tom returning to the lineup having cut seven pounds to wrestle at 138 and teching former Wawasee Warrior Luke Stuckman.

“NorthWood is always a good team and it’s always a battle between us,” Salazar said. “It’s cool to see some of our old coaching staff coaching against us. It’s kind of a fun rivalry. Kind of bittersweet, but you know what, it’s always a fun time.”

Wawasee gets back at it Saturday with five matches at the West Noble Super Duals.

At NorthWood
NorthWood 44, Wawasee 34

Varsity
144 – Jager Bute (NW) pin Gaige Boyd (3:50)  0-6
150 – Ethan Rodriguez (W) pin Faruq Ghaffar (1:16)  6-6
157 – Joey Mitschelen (NW) pin Carson Nine (1:03)  6-12
165 – Moses Howard (W) tech fall Brayden Herr (20-5)  11-12
175 – Austin King (NW) pin Brody Young (5:38)  11-18
190 – Ashton Hahn (NW) pin Alex Dibble (:39)  11-24
215 – Brady King (NW) pin Trayvon Senders (3:26)  11-30
285 – Derek Morrison (W) pin Bryson Davis (3:12)  17-30
106 – Cylus Melching (W) pin Brayden Gill (:55)  23-30
113 – Trevor Monsen (NW) dec Garrett Tittle (12-8)  23-33
120 – Cam Senter (W) pin Wes Hahn (:40)  29-33
126 – Calix Truex (NW) pin Isaac Ruff (3:02)  29-39
132 – Will Hahn (NW) pin Mattia Melli (1:23)  29-44 (-1 misconduct)
138 – Cavan Tom (W) tech fall Luke Stuckman (15-0)  34-44

JV
132 – Dalton Yoder (W) dec Connor Munsell 6-2
144 – Kailyb Ferrer (W) pin Jack Mitschelen (1:52)
157 – Kale Symons (NW) pin Devin Sewell (3:14)
175 – Kingston Brennaman (W) pin Cole Flickenger (:54)