LAFAYETTE — With the wrestling regular season winding down, coaches are looking to fine-tune their teams in preparation for the second season.
That is why St. John’s took on Lima Central Catholic and Allen East in a tri-match Wednesday night at the new Allen East High School outside of LaFayette.
The Jays bested the Thunderbirds 39-30 but fell to the host Mustangs 54-24.
“It’s good competition. Even though there weren’t many actual matches, the ones we got are valuable,” Blue Jay coach Devin Dempsey said. “I liked that we were aggressive, that we were good on our feet in the neutral position, that our conditioning is pretty solid and that we wrestled hard every minute.”
For Dempsey — who had to forfeit five weight classes to the Mustangs due to lack of numbers of injuries — it’s also a time to get people healthy and put the finishing touches on each wrestler.
“It’s getting late in the year and you have to worry about injuries and illnesses that can come up, the nagging injuries. We have an invitational Saturday at Celina plus two tri-meets next week against some good competition,” he added. “These duals are a chance to have more of a team mentality and also a chance to work on different things. Each wrestler has a favorite move or finishing combination. Those are the areas — as well as figuring out what each one needs to get better at for the tournament — that you need to address.”
St. John’s had no wrestlers for weight classes 215, 285, 103, 112, 152, 160; LCC did not have an entrant at 103, 112, 119, 125, 145 and 189.
Getting wins via forfeit for the Blue Jays were Brian Merschman (119), Jamie Klausing (125), Anthony DeWitt (145) and Jeff Michel (189).
LCC got voided wins for Jeremy Tidd (215), Tyler Tschuor (285),Scott Kayatin (152) and Reynolds (160).
Thus, there were only four matches, with the Blue and Gold winning three: Cody Brinkman led 11-7 after two periods and stayed that way in beating Adam Geiger at 135; Zach Reindel had the first takedown versus Torres at 140 pounds and took that into a pin with 22.1 ticks left in the first; and Joey Grubenhoff fell behind but used a reversal into a pinning combination over Anthony McCormick at 171.
LCC’s Anthony Patterson fell behind late in the third period in his 130-pound match with Bret Bowersock but a reversal and a pin with a mere 8.8 seconds left was the T-Birds’ only triumph.
In the JV round, both 130-pound matches, Klausing pinned O’Dowd with 53 seconds left and Ryan Musser did the same to Hahn with 22.5 ticks remaining.
The Jays were behind 30-6 before the match ever started, forfeiting five classes (double-voiding at 112): 215 (K. Fields), 285 (Jeremy Pryer), Kruger (103), B. Hager (152) and Jeremy Hutchinson (160); with only Merschman getting a free six points at 119.
Garnering wins for the Jays were Musser quickly pinning Burkey in just 30 seconds; DeWitt finally controling a tight match with Helms, leading to a pin with 41.6 seconds to go in the second period; and Grubenhoff controlling the third period and putting Stephens’ shoulders to the mat with 46.8 seconds left.
Fisher pinned Bowersock at :34.4 of the first period; G. Dues pinned Brinkman 1:09.6 into the 135-pound match; Walters used a reversal in the second period and pinned Reindel with 57.4 seconds left in the second; and M. Dues pinned Michel at :34.9 of the opener.
St. John’s is in the Celina Invitational starting Saturday morning.