Wawasee’s Hunter Miller settles NorthWood’s Joey Mitschelen into a near fall Thursday in the team dual at The Pit.
It really doesn’t matter what the team records are, NorthWood is going to put up a fight and Wawasee is going to reciprocate. The two wrestling clubs got into yet another proverbial slugfest Thursday night at the Pit.
When it was all said and done, Wawasee moved to 6-0 in the Northern Lakes Conference to keep its regular season title aspirations alive with a 46-32 win over the Panthers.
Wawasee, ranked No. 9 in Class 2-A, got everything it could handle less than two days from Saturday’s IHSWCA Team State tournament. Leading just 34-32 after an emphatic pin from NorthWood’s Bryson Davis at 285, Wawasee would rally with a forfeit at 106 and a pin just 16 seconds into the final contest of the night, Cameron Senter squashing Landon McDonald, to make it academic. Warrior head coach Frank Bumgardner, however, wasn’t in a celebratory mood when breaking down the tight win.
“We had guys who were on and some who were off, bottom line is we didn’t put out our best effort across the entire roster,” said Bumgardner. “Luckily, we were a better team than what NorthWood is right now, and we were able to put on a performance that was good enough to win and keep us in line for the conference.”
Wawasee’s Titus Taylor celebrates following his pinfall over NorthWood’s Casin Truex.
NorthWood jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start the evening, taking a major decision from Jager Bute followed by a Lynkyn Ratcliff pin 41 seconds into his match at 126. Wawasee responded with 22 straight points, riding the strength of consecutive pins from Titus Taylor, Logan Stuckman and Ethan Rodriguez, and Hunter Miller nearly got a pin but settled for a major decision to keep the line moving.
Ashton Hahn and Kaden Lone would score pins for the Panthers sandwiching Wawasee pins from Gavin Malone and Donnie Blair. Wawasee’s 14-point lead after the Blair win would be enough cushion to absorb pins from Wesley Menzie and Davis in what was truly a pinball affair between the two clubs.
NorthWood head coach Nate Andrews, already in a good mood surrounding his Senior Night as well as an alumni event prior to the match, saw a lot of good for a team that is at the tail end of a nightmare schedule.
“We are coming out of a ‘December To Remember’ with our schedule, where we don’t compete in November and then December is nuts,” said Andrews, whose team has competed in six duals, three super duals and the Al Smith all in the past 35 days. “January slows down a little bit, we have this weekend at West Noble then we start prep for the conference and sectional. Nice little break as we slow down a little bit.”
NorthWood will return to action Saturday at the West Noble Super Duals while Wawasee will head to Portland and Jay County High School to meet Rensselaer Central in the first round of the Class 2-A Team State tournament. The Panthers (1-5 NLC) still have a dual with Plymouth left while Wawasee (6-0 NLC) will host Mishawaka (6-0) next Wednesday for claim of the NLC season title.
“Any time we are winning duals, it’s a good thing, but we know we need to be better,” Bumgardner said. “I think majority of the conference expected us and Mishawaka to be there undefeated at the end of the schedule going at it. With that being said, we should enjoy being 6-0, but we think we have some good matchups against Mishawaka. They are the favorites on paper, but we truly feel we have a team that can compete with them.”
At NorthWood
120 – Jager Bute (NW) maj dec Luke Stuckman 8-0 4-0
126 – Lynkyn Ratcliff (NW) pin Zeke Spore :41 10-0
132 – Titus Taylor (Waw) pin Casin Truex :44 10-6
138 – Logan Stuckman (Waw) pin Tyler Dittman 2:43 10-12
145 – Ethan Rodriguez (Waw) pin Payton Griffin 1:24 10-18
152 – Hunter Miller (Waw) maj dec Joey Mitschelen 11-2 10-22
160 – Ashton Hahn (NW) maj dec Carson Nine 15-3 14-22
170 – Gavin Malone (Waw) pin Keith Miller 1:04 14-28
182 – Kaden Lone (NW) pin Cam Zimmerman 1:10 20-28
195 – Donnie Blair (Waw) pin Luke Miller 1:54 20-34
220 – Wesley Menzie (NW) pin Derek Morrison 3:04 26-34
285 – Bryson Davis (NW) pin Eleazar Vazquez 4:55 32-34
106 – Kaleb Salazar (Waw ) forfeit 32-40
113 – Cameron Senter (Waw) pin Landon McDonald :16 32-46