The Washington Blue Lion wrestling team kicked off the 2019 portion of the season Thursday with a tri-match at home, featuring Frontier Athletic Conference opponent Chillicothe and non-conference school, Amanda Clearcreek.
In the first match of the evening, the Aces defeated Chillicothe, 47-27.
In the second match, Amanda beat Washington, 42-37 and in the final match, Washington beat Chillicothe, 66-6.
“Overall, I was pleased with the way we wrestled in both matches,” Washington head coach Louis Reid said. “Obviously, I was disappointed with our loss to Amanda. We lost to them by five points. They beat us by 50 points in our pool tournament.
“We knew coming in it would be very difficult to beat them,” Reid said. “To know that we were right in the match and lost at the end, it stinks, but I was really pleased with the way we wrestled. We gave up two weight classes. Those two forfeits (equating to 12 points), they hurt us, but, our guys wrestled really well, so, I was really pleased with that.
“We hadn’t won an FAC match (yet),” Reid said. “We wrestle Hillsboro next week. We wanted to get back into the thick of things. We can’t be in the hunt for an FAC title if we don’t start winning and we got a win tonight. Chillicothe wrestled Amanda Clearcreek tough. (Chillicothe) may not have a lot of kids, but they have some really tough kids.
“In that match, Branton Dawes bumped up a weight class (to 126) to wrestle Caleb Lake of Chillicothe, who’s a really good wrestler,” Reid said. “Also, Collier Brown (195) wrestled Nick Erslan. Those are their two best wrestlers and we picked up wins there.
“We’ve had a great week of practice and I was really impressed with how our kids came out and performed today,” Reid said. “I was happy with our seniors, Collin George and Jay Fettig, to get at least one dual meet win. Devin Slagle didn’t get to wrestle tonight, but, he’ll be coming back in the future.”
Results for Washington:
Bryce Warner at 106 defeated Amanda Clearcreek by pin in 2:29 and Chillicothe by pin in 1:59; Austin Chamberlin (113) won by forfeit against Chillicothe and was pinned by Amanda Clearcreek in 1:42; Collin George received a forfeit at 126 pounds against Amanda Clearcreek and he won by pin in 1:02 at 120 pounds against Chillicothe;
Branton Dawes won an 8-2 decision at 126 pounds against Chillicothe; Washington did not have anyone wrestling at 132 pounds; at 138, Jordan Rohrer received a forfeit against Chillicothe and lost by fall to Amanda Clearcreek in 1:18; at 145, Will Baughn won by forfeit against Chillicothe and pinned his opponent from Amanda Clearcreek in 1:00;at 152 pounds, Thomas Ciscoe lost by pin to Amanda Clearcreek in 1:42 and he also received a forfeit against Chillicothe; at 160 pounds, Jay Fettig lost by pin to Amanda Clearcreek in 2:20 and won by pin against Chillicothe in 1:09;
Dylan Moore (170) won by pin over Chillicothe in 1:55 and lost by pin to Amanda Clearcreek in 1:16; Washington did not have anyone wrestling at 182 pounds; at 195, Collier Brown won a 6-5 decision over Chillicothe and won a 12-4 decision over Amanda Clearcreek; at 220 pounds, Mason Mustain won 10-3 over Amanda Clearcreek and, at heavyweight, Mustain pinned his Chillicothe opponent in :46; Chase Sluder won by pin at heavyweight against Amanda Clearcreek in :32 and he picked up a forfeit at 220 pounds against Chillicothe.`
Washington will be competing in a tournament at Nelsonville-York Saturday and will return to FAC action at Hillsboro Thursday, Jan. 10.
