Wawasee’s Carson Nine reacts after scoring a pin against Warsaw during Saturday’s Wawasee November Duals. (Photos by Mike Deak)

It was a matter of one move. One extra bite of Wheaties. One split decision.

It came down to one matchup, and North Miami had just a little more in the tank than Wawasee in the first round of the day at Saturday’s Wawasee November Duals. A 39-37 win for the Three Rivers Conference-based Warriors set a tone for a 5-0 day, good enough for the Invite title to head down to Miami County.

Wawasee held a 31-23 lead on North Miami after back-to-back-to-back pins from Cam Senter, Jay Miller-Harris and Titus Taylor. But North Miami rallied with wins in three of the final four matchups, a pin from Jordan Simon with two seconds left in the first period capped the two-point win for the visiting Warriors. North Miami would go on to handily beat Fairfield, South Bend Washington, Fort Wayne South Side and Warsaw for the team title.

As for the host Warriors, Wawasee would beat South Side 63-15 but struggle with Warsaw in round three, needing a pin from Donnie Blair in the final bout to force a 36-36 tie on the scoreboard and a review of six sets of criteria to determine Wawasee the winner for the Northern Lakes Conference dual tally. The Warriors closed out with wins over Washington (69-12) and Fairfield (45-31), but again struggled to close out the Falcons as Fairfield won the mat match scoring 31-15 as Wawasee was given 30 free points on forfeits.

The manner to which Wawasee settled on its day left head coach Jamie Salazar split on his decision of whether 4-1 was good or not so much.

“We made lots of improvement from the Bellmont match to today,” said Salazar, who picked up his first career high school win in the South Side victory. “We looked a lot better than Bellmont. We had better hand control and placement, worked off the bottom better. Lots of small, technical things to work on. I will say we had a lot of our younger guys step in today and do a good job for us.”

Earning tournament MVP was Wawasee’s Kaleb Salazar, who went 5-0 for the day but was just 2-0 in head-to-head matches. Those two wins, however, came against state-ranked opponents in Braylon McIntyre of North Miami, who is ranked No. 2 at 120 in the Fort Wayne Semi-state, and Bryce McNees, who is ranked No. 5 at 113 in the East Chicago Semi-state. Salazar, who is himself ranked No. 3 at 113 at Fort Wayne, needed overtime but got past McIntyre, 6-4, in sudden victory with Salazar scoring a reversal in the third period to tie it at 4-4 and then getting a takedown in the extra frame for the win. Against McNees, Salazar continued to have the Tigers’ number with another victory, using two takedowns and a reversal off the restart to get a 6-0 win.

Also accounting for perfect 5-0 days for Wawasee included Blair with a pin, major decision, decision and two forfeits, and Senter, who had two pins, a decision and two forfeits. Derek Morrison had a breakout day for the Warriors, scoring pins in his first four matches of the day before Fairfield’s Ethan Hochstetler got him with a decision in round five. Taylor, Carson Nine and Brody Young all went 4-1 on the day to aid the Warriors, Young called into varsity duty for the first time to replace an injured Ethan Rodriguez.

“We saw a lot of good things from guys who haven’t been out there much,” coach Salazar said. “There were moments where it looked like the light bulb turned on for them, and other times when it turned off. That’s to be expected with a few of these kids. But when we call their name, we need everyone to be ready.”

Wawasee varsity returns to the mats Thursday for a trip to East Noble.

For full results from the Wawasee November Duals, find the tournament link on Track Wrestling.