If there’s anything that has bothered Wawasee head coach Jamie Salazar and his coaching staff more than anything else this season, it has been inconsistency. Without much room for error with a powerhouse Mishawaka club coming in for yet another championship showdown, it again became an issue of consistency for Wawasee in a 45-24 Northern Lakes Conference loss Wednesday night. The win by the Cavemen vaulted them to 7-0 in the Northern Lakes Conference and repeating as regular season conference champs.

“We have got to get back to consistency,” said Wawasee head coach Jamie Salazar, whose side fell to 5-2 in the conference standings. “I know we have a young team, 16 and 17-year-old kids, but we definitely need to improve on being more consistent.”

While the score may reflect a Mishawaka blowout, it really wasn’t that lopsided until late, but at the same time, Mishawaka exposed those issues Salazar noted.

A trio of wins from Cavan Tom, holding off Colby Smith for a gritty 9-4 decision, a pin from Ethan Rodriguez at 3:41 on Corey Gardner, and Carson Nine getting back in the NLC win column with a 2:51 pin of Brayden Reed, put Wawasee up 24-21 on a salty Mishawaka sideline.

That momentum would come to a stunning halt for Wawasee, however, as the Warriors wouldn’t score a point the remainder of the match, losing the final five duals including a upset at 215 as Trey Dunning rallied from down five in the third period to tie up Derek Morrison at 11-11, then get a takedown in overtime for a 14-11 sudden victory to completely blow up any rally attempt Wawasee had at grabbing a share of the NLC title. It was Morrison’s first loss since the championship match of the Al Smith Invite in December.

Wawasee’s other nine points came from a 5-1 win by Cam Senter over Chance Smith and a forfeit for Mattia Melli.

After entering January with a 5-0 NLC mark, back-to-back losses to NorthWood and Mishawaka had Salazar searching for answers.

“You get into these matches and you have to be confident, you can’t worry about the name on the chest,” Salazar mentioned. “We have been in these matches we came up short on, but again, that goes back to the consistency. We can’t keep relying on the same kids to keep winning all the time in these dual matches. We need other people to start stepping up.”

Before the evening’s action, Wawasee recognized its youth program, celebrating almost two dozen young wrestlers in front of the home crowd, part of over 70 kids overall serving as the future of Wawasee wrestling.

Wawasee enters the NLC Tournament this Saturday at Northridge.

At Wawasee
Mishawaka 45, Wawasee 24

106 – Nick Freeze (M) pin Cylus Melching (:48)  0-6
113 – Brody Blevins (M) pin Garrett Tittle (:40)  0-12
120 – Cameron Senter (W) dec Chance Smith (5-1)  3-12
126 – Gavin Reed (M) dec Isaac Ruff (7-1)  3-15
132 – Mattia Melli (W) forfeit  9-15
138 – Will Mason (M) pin Gaige Boyd (1:01)  9-21
144 – Cavan Tom (W) dec Colby Smith (9-4)  12-21
150 – Ethan Rodriguez (W) pin Corey Gardner (3:41)  18-21
157 – Carson Nine (W) pin Brayden Reed (2:51)  24-21
165 – Izaiah Bute (M) tech fall Moses Howard (23-7)  24-26
175 – Kadyn O’Neal (M) tech fall Brody Young (21-3)  24-31
190 – Mason Henrich (M) tech fall Alex Dibble (17-1)  24-36
215 – Trey Dunning (M) SV Derek Morrison (14-11)  24-39
285 – Tristen Stephens (M) pin Lyam Moseman (1:19)  24-45

JV

138 – Zaidyn Ferrer (W) pin Akeem Chester (4:20)
157 – Devin Sewell (W) pin Dayton Webb (:58)