Featuring no junior varsity and seven forfeitures, the Warsaw wrestling team’s 46-25 Northern Lakes Conference home win over Wawasee took just over a half-hour to complete Thursday night. “We had a lot of forfeits tonight,” Warsaw coach Justin Smith said. “They forfeited 220, heavyweight, 106 and 113. We forfeited 120, had an injured guy at 152, so we forfeited that, and we forfeited 170.” In the speedy match, which also began an hour early to get the kids home for finals week, Warsaw did get two pins in the seven contested matches. The first pin was achieved by freshman Dyllan Hernandez at 160 pounds, as he took down Wawasee’s Jeremiah Dilley in 1:25. Warsaw junior Lester Payne, though, needed a little more time at 182 pounds. Leading Wawasee freshman James Hobbick 5-2, Payne got himself into a little trouble, but fought back to get the pin in 3:34. “It looked like (Hobbick) may be able to roll him over and pin him, but then Lester was able to reverse the move and pin him,” Smith said. Also getting points on the mat for Warsaw were sophomore Jeremy Lee with a 9-2 major decision at 126, while senior Jorge Meyo (132) and junior Rory Nolin (195) won by 9-6 and 7-2 decisions, respectively. “I think we wrestled well,” Smith said. “Obviously, it’s a conference match so you want to come out and wrestle your best. Even though some of our more experienced guys weren’t wrestling, the guys that did wrestle had some good matches.” According to Smith, a couple of his more experienced wrestlers are actually freshmen, and they both received forfeits Thursday night. “We have some experienced freshman with Kyle Hatch and Riley Hogenson (113),” he said. “They’ve been wrestling for a number of years. Kyle at 106, he’s been real solid this year, sitting at 11-0 on the year.” For Wawasee, senior Michael Pena posted an 8-0 major decision at 145 and sophomore Zac McKee picked up the other victory on the mat, claiming a 5-1 decision at 138. “Zac McKee’s development of wrestling knowledge and mat sense is ten-fold what it was last year,” Wawasee coach Paul Meyer said. “From controlling the wrist to seeing breakdowns and pinning combinations, as well as managing himself on his feet.” Like Warsaw, Wawasee also has low numbers this year, as the Tigers feature 21 wrestlers on its roster, compared to the Warriors’ 18. According to Meyer, the small numbers in wrestling seem to be pretty common this season. “(Numbers are low), unless you’re a Goshen or even Plymouth, who has 19 seniors, which is more than we have on the whole team,” Meyer said. “I’d say it’s one of those things where (numbers) are down across the state, unless you’re a really big, big school where kids want to be part of it. If you look at our numbers from the beginning of the season to now, we’re probably down 15 kids – from injuries, resignations and other things that come up. There’s a lot of issues we need to contend with that are factors in these young men’s lives.” Regardless of the numbers, Meyer is pleased with what he has. “I’ll coach what we’ve got,” he said. “I definitely think we have a couple that will place in the NLC (meet), as well as one or two sectional champs. “This year is going to be one of those down years, but I have a gut feeling that we will come back next year and have a strong core,” he added. The Warriors host their own invitational Saturday, while Warsaw hits the road to take part in the large Penn Super Duals Saturday, followed by the even larger Mishawaka Invitational on Dec. 27 and 28. “We’re getting into the meat of our season,” Smith said. “The Penn and Mishawaka (invitationals) are really our measuring sticks, as far as where we are in each weight class.”
WARSAW 46, WAWASEE 25 106 – Kyle Hatch (War) won by forfeit; 113 – Riley Hogenson (War) won by forfeit; 120 – Tristin Ponsler (Waw) won by forfeit; 126 – Jeremy Lee (War) major dec. Marcos Mejia, 9-1; 132 – Jorge Meyo (War) dec. Logan Bowers, 9-6; 138 – Zac McKee (Waw) dec. Brady Stout, 5-1; 145 – Michael Pena (Waw) maj. dec. Spencer Gareiss, 8-0; 152 – Zach Ford (Waw) won by forfeit; 160 – Dyllan Hernandez (War) pin. Jeremiah Dilley, 1:25; 170 – Stephen Possell (Waw) won by forfeit; 182 – Lester Payne (War) pin. James Hobbick, 3:34; 195 – Rory Nolin (War) dec. Andy Holdeman, 7-2; 220 – Anthony Hendrickson (War) won by forfeit; HWT – Andrew Brock (War) won by forfeit NLC Records: Warsaw 1-2 NLC, Wawasee 0-4
