A large crowd turned out at Washington High School Thursday evening to watch the annual dual wrestling match between the Miami Trace Panthers and the Blue Lions.
Miami Trace won the Frontier Athletic Conference match, 45-27.
“Everybody in the line-up did what they had to do,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Fondale said. “Everything we asked them to do, they did. We had kids make weight; we had kids bouncing around weight classes. We had a lot of kids making a lot of sacrifices to make this dual go the way we wanted it to go. Every kid made their own sacrifices for the team and that was a big deal.
“Our seniors showed pretty good leadership,” Fondale said. “They were stressing all week at practice that this was the last time versus Court House in a dual meet. So, they really wanted to go out with a bang.
“We also had a couple of freshmen come up big with pins,” Fondale said.
“It was good to see senior Courtney Walker pick up a pin for us at 106,” Washington head coach Louis Reid said. “Zyon (Wilson) did a good job. He’s a freshman (132). Mcale is a pretty impressive freshman.
“Will (Baughn) wrestled a good match,” Reid said. “Jay Fettig had a good match at 145 pounds. It was back and fourth. Jay lost by two points or so. There are some little things Jay has to work on. We got caught on our back late in the second period and that really changed the outcome of that match.
“Zane Nelson (152) knew we needed a pin and went out and took care of business,” Reid said. “Dylan Moore, a freshman, started for the first time (160). He wrestled tough, but (Arnold) had the advantage with experience.
“Senior Chris Conger picked up a pin at 170,” Reid said. “He went out and did what a senior needed to do.
“Sophomore Collier Brown lost a hard-fought match at 182,” Reid said. “I thought Collier wrestled pretty solid.
“Jaimie McCane lost to B.J. Anders,” Reid said. “Jaimie has to get more offensive in the match.
“We had freshman Andreas Utrea in the starting lineup for the first time at 220,” Reid said. “Dalton’s a senior. I was pretty happy for Andreas, having not wrestled all season until last night. He did some pretty good things in the first period, but experience took over (for Bartley).
“Junior Colton McNichols picked up a pin for us at heavyweight,” Reid said.
“We end up 1-4 in the FAC,” Reid said. “Obviously, not one of our better years; not what we’re used to. It’s been an up and down season for us. We are 8-8 in dual meets right now.
“I was happy with the effort of the team,” Reid said. “They wrestled tough.”
Next up for the Panthers and the Blue Lions is the dual meet team tournament.
The Panthers qualified to State in this event last year.
This year, Miami Trace will be heading to London High School where they will have a dual match against the Blue Lions Wednesday at 6 p.m.
On the adjoining bracket, it will be Bellbrook taking on host London.
The winners of those matches will wrestle each other 20 minutes after the initial dual.
The one team left standing will advance to the Regional semifinals Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 5 p.m. at a site to be determined.
Miami Trace won the middle school match, 52-34.
Miami Trace 45, Washington 27
106 – Courtney Walker (W) pinned Titus Lehr (MT)
113 – Graham Carson (MT) pinned Jordan Rohrer (W)
120 – Storm Duffy (MT) won by forfeit
126 – Shane Seymour (MT) won by forfeit
132 – Mcale Callahan (MT) pinned Zyon Wilson (W), 2nd period
138 – Will Baughn (W) dec. Wes Gandee (MT)
145 – Jaymon Flaugher (MT) dec. Jay Fettig (W)
152 – Zane Nelson (W) pinned Jotham Lewis (MT)
160 – Dylan Arnold (MT) tech. fall Dylan Moore (W)
170 – Chris Conger (W) pinned Luke Henry (MT)
182 – Jacob Tinkler (MT) dec. Collier Brown (W), 3-1
195 – B.J. Anders (MT) dec. Jaimie McCane (W), 4-0
220 – Dalton Bartley (MT) pinned Andreas Utrea (W), 2nd period
Hwt – Colton McNichols (W) pinned Grant DeBruin (MT)
