SYRACUSE - Warsaw Community High School's varsity wrestling team earned its first Northern Lakes Conference win of the season Thursday with a 40-27 victory over the host Wawasee Warriors.
The match started and hour-and-a-half early because of weather concerns."It was exciting to get our first conference win, even though in some cases our execution was a little erratic," said first-year Warsaw coach Justin Smith. "We just were not entirely mentally prepared, I think, due to being a bit off balance with the earlier starting time."
"As usual, our experienced wrestlers did their job," he continued. "And then we had some excellent effort from the younger kids. They gave us some good wins, and then even in losses, several of them avoided losing by fall. We're coming along."
Jarred Brooks (103 pounds) and Kyle Duzan (112), both freshmen, recorded first-period pins. Senior Justin Brooks (119) racked up 16 points in about a minute of wrestling before nailing Brandon Bartman in 1:26.
Paul Manbu (135) also got a victory by fall, as did Sebastian Hoskins (145). Adam Keener (152) amassed 20 points in his major decision (20-8) over Ethan Eastway.
In a knock-down drag-out battle at 160 pounds, Warsaw's Ross Hoover was ahead 13-6 when the match was concluded due to unsportsmanlike conduct by Nelson Blocher. This resulted in six team points for the Tigers and the further deduction of a team point from the Warriors.
Wawasee coach Scott Dehart also faces the challenge of a young team.
"We put eight freshmen on the mat as varsity," said DeHart.
The Warrior lineup featured those eight freshmen, along with four sophomores and two seniors.
"Our numbers are up and we are getting better," said DeHart. "We just need to be patient."
Freshman Kyle Clevenger (125) got a win for Wawasee in a fiercely-fought contest that saw Warsaw's Jordan Horney penalized several times, including a couple of whistles for unnecessary roughness. Horney came back to score a reversal and a nearfall in period three, but in the end, Clevenger won 13-6.
Wawasee's Ryan Lindsey (140) tallied 16 points on takedowns toward his 19-6 major decision victory over Chris Batta.
The Warriors had victories by fall from Bobby Marcuccilli (130) and Dimitri Kaplanis (285), while Kyle DeHart (160), Dan Hensley (189) and Tom Schwartz (215) earned decisions.
