Have fun. Score points. Win matches.

Pretty simple recipe for success, and it tasted good Wednesday in a holiday appetizer for the Wawasee wrestling program.

Wawasee welcomed in Concord for a Northern Lakes Conference dual, a make-up from last Thursday’s match that Concord needed to postpone. With that said, Wawasee wasted very little time going to work, needing less than five minutes to record the night’s first four pins of a 60-21 win.

Hunter Miller and Carson Nine both worked a series of mat points before closing out their opponents in almost identical times, Miller at 1:27 and Nine at 1:24. Gavin Malone wasted little energy, getting Ben Harris to the mat quickly and finishing up at a tidy 27 seconds. Cam Zimmerman could have likely closed out his match with Daniel Sanchez much quicker than his slap at 1:40, but the senior 82 used a little opportunity to get some work in after missing last weekend’s Duals to illness.

Kaleb Salazar, Cam Senter, Logan Stuckman and Ethan Rodriguez also worked pins for dominant mat showing by the Warriors.

Ironically, the most entertaining match of the night came in a Wawasee loss, where the 195-pound card yielded a pair of state contenders in Donnie Blair and Concord’s Armen Koltookian. Blair gave up a little size to the chiseled Koltookian, who came into the night ranked No. 4 in the state per Indiana Mat. But it was 1-0 Blair after two periods, the Wawasee junior himself ranked No. 6 in the East Chicago Semi-state doing well to stay out of Koltookian’s grip and forcing him to move more than he visibly wanted.

Koltookian would open the third with an escape and a takedown to take a 3-1 lead, only for Blair to get an escape to climb within one. But that would be all the Minuteman senior would allow as both dogs were well exhausted at the end of the fight.

“Stay within your position, and I thought Donnie did that,” Wawasee head coach Frank Bumgardner said. “We wanted to control where the action went, they were frustrated by it. And that’s part of the competition. Where can the action be dictated? And Donnie did a better job dictating the action. I thought he was very patient with a lot of his wrestling, and didn’t panic when Armen got him on the mat.”

The win for the Warriors moves the club to 5-0 in the Northern Lakes Conference with some very intriguing red circles on the calendar.

The varsity will head to the Al Smith Invite at Mishawaka next Thursday and Friday in what most consider the toughest individual tournament in the state. Nearly all of the who’s who in the northern half of the state will be there, creating a true proving ground.

Jan. 5 will be a very interesting matchup, as Titus Taylor noted in the hallway following the Concord win, “Don’t forget about NorthWood!” Wawasee will have to travel to Nappanee and knock off the talented Panthers if it wants the Jan. 11 NLC dual against Mishawaka to matter like it wants it to. Bumgardner, in all his success, still hasn’t claimed a regular season NLC championship, but once again is lined up to challenge for it.

By the way, toss in Team State at Jay County on Jan. 7, a title Wawasee hasn’t won since 2018. And the girls start their state march at Penn on Dec. 28.

It’s a whole lot to process in a short amount of time.

“You have to feel good about sitting 5-0 right now and this stretch in front of us is very interesting,” Bumgardner said. “We’ve been training to get to this point, now we get to see if the training is paying off. I think our kids are excited for what’s to come, and we’ll see what happens.”

Wawasee 60, Concord 21

152 – Hunter Miller (Waw) pin Drew Trigg 1:27  6-0
160 – Carson Nine (Waw) pin Trent Cripe 1:24  12-0
170 – Gavin Malone (Waw) pin Ben Harris :27  18-0
182 – Cam Zimmerman (Waw) pin Daniel Sanchez 1:40  24-0
195 – Armen Koltookian (Con) dec Donnie Blair 3-2  24-3
220 – Logan Whitman (Con) pin Derek Morrison 1:19  24-9
285 – Lance Army (Con) pin Eleazar Vazquez 1:24  24-15
106 – Kaleb Salazar (Waw) pin Logan Berg 1:50  30-15
113 – Colten Coburn (Waw) Forfeit  36-15
120 – Cam Senter (Waw) pin Joe Borkholder :45  42-15
126 – Donovan Cunningham (Con) pin Colton Sutton 3:05  42-21
132 – Titus Taylor (Waw) Forfeit  48-21
138 – Logan Stuckman (Waw) pin Brycen Brosamer 3:24  54-21
145 – Ethan Rodriguez (Waw) pin Jaxson Meyer 2:20  60-21