Redskin Wrestlers Overwelm Kenton in 66-2 Decision
WAPAKONETA - The Wapak wrestling team hosted the Kenton Wildcats on Thursday night, but Miss Manners would not have approved of the way the Redskins treated their guests, as they took a 66-2 decision from the visitors to improve their Western Buckeye League record to 5-1.
Because Kenton didn’t have wrestlers for seven weight classes and the Redskins were short on one, only seven matches were actually wrestled with the home team recording four pins and three decisions.
Reese Schnarre started the evening off at 165 pounds and the junior put his team up 6-0 with a pin at the 2:30 mark of his match, and following two Kenton voids (175/190) Andrew Mosler battled out to an 8-2 advantage, then notched the Redskin’s second pin of the night with just under a minute left in the match, and Wapak led 24-0.
After a double void at 185 (no points awarded), Kenton voided the matches at 106 and 113 pounds so the Redskin advantage was now 36-0
Action resumed at 120 pounds with Dalton Huber ringing up a pin just 51 seconds into his contest and Kaden Zink stepped onto the mat at 126 pounds.
The Zink got off to a slow start, giving up a takedown and two three point near falls, to trail 8-0 after the first two minutes, and still trailed 7-2 as the third period opened.
He started in the down position, and his opponent, Karson Davis, was called for a one point technical violation for an illegal grip, then he was called for two more stalling violations. The first cost him one point, and the second was two points for the Redskin, and suddenly it was now only a one point margin, 7-6 and time was running out.
The freshman kept at it and with one second left on the clock the official raised two fingers to award a two point reversal, an 8-7 win, and three more points for the Red and White. The Kenton coach strongly disagreed with the ruling and the official docked the Wildcats a team point.
Two more Kenton voids at 132 and 138 set the stage for the last three matches of the evening.
It was another tooth and nail battle at 144 pounds with Redskin Jarrett Mullen taking on Aaron Modd. There was not a takedown during the entire match. Modd got points in the second period for an illegal grip violation on Mullen, and an escape, while Mullen pulled to within 2-1 with an escape with only 17 seconds left in third period, but that ended the scoring. The team scores now stood at 57-2.
Wapak’s Wyatt Buell and Kenton’s Anthony Hunt also had a close battle for their entire six minute plus match at 150 pounds. Again the two grapplers could not take the other down during regulation time when the pair were on their feet, with only an escape each that tied the score at one-all as they headed into overtime.
The first overtime is one minute long with both wrestlers on their feet and the same pattern played out. Neither could gain enough advantage to recored a match winning takedown. As the clock ticked under five seconds Buell had his man on the mat and was near to gaining control for the win. As in the 126 pound match, the official awarded the take down just before the buzzer sounded to give the freshman the hard fought 3-1 win.
The team contest was closed out with senior Corbin Mitchell winning his 29th match of the year on his team leading 25th pin, coming at the :55 mark of the match, to close out the scoring at 66-2.
The Wapak middle school
wrestlers kept their WBL record spotless with a win over the Kenton youngsters.
Cordrey Urijah took a 20-4 technical fall, followed by a pin from Zane Russell, a 4-3 decision from Bishop Issac, and pins from Cernan Evertt, Adkins Zander, Myers Cooper, and Mcvety Blake.
The Redskins will be in action again this weekend as they travel to Celina for the Lions Invitational Tournament where they could get some up close and personal experience against the Bulldog wrestlers they will face in a dual meet at home on February seventh. The two clubs are currently tied for second behind front running St. Marys.