On their senior night, the Seymour wrestling team hoped for a solid performance from their squad.
However, that was not the case for the Owls.
The Columbus North wrestling team dominated Thursday on the road against Seymour.
“I saw Columbus North do a really good job of beating up Seymour,” Owls coach Todd Weaver said. “I don’t know if we didn’t come to wrestle, or we didn’t want to wrestle but we didn’t wrestle — that’s what’s disappointing. We had a very good week of practice. We worked on a lot of things off the bottom, and off our feet, and we didn’t do any of it.”
Despite his team’s win, Bull Dogs coach Nick Skinner said he felt his team had areas that needed improvement.
“We made some mistakes, we lost some matches we definitely shouldn’t have lost,” Skinner said. “We’ve got to score more points in some of those matches.”
In the first match of the evening, the Bull Dogs’ Isaiah Peetz pinned the Owls’ Nick Carpenter in 1:33.
North’s Curtis Collins (113), Brandon Woods (220) and Steven DeDomenic (285) all won their matches by forfeit.
Patrick Shehan pinned the Owls’ Josh Rohde at 1:38 in the 126 to pick up the Bull Dogs’ second win.
Garrett Johnson got the Owls on the board when he won a 12-4 major decision against Jackson Nagel.
The Bull Dogs then won six straight matches.
In the 138, Braden Hickely pinned the Owls’ Cheaney Reichenbacker in 1:19.
The Bull Dogs’ Brett Bosser-man won a 7-3 decision over the Owls’ David Shuffitt in the 145 and Alex Davidson took the 152 with a 9-1 major decision against Jackson Boyt.
Andrew Chapman earned another Bull Dogs pin at 1:26 versus Bradan Thomasma at 160.
Jake Larson earned a hard fought victory for the Bull Dogs in the 170 in his match against the Owls’ Tristian Sitterding.
“My finishers finished tonight,” Skinner said. “Andrew Chapman is only a freshman, but when he catches you on your back that’s the end of the match. I love that about him. Hickley and Larson went out and wrestled hard matches and did what they had to do to win.”
A final victory went to
the Bull Dogs’ Josh Larson, as he pinned Tyler Bicknell at 1:47.
“(After the match) I told them ‘what we’re teaching you works, and you’re not making it work,’” Weaver said. “That’s kind of what I took away from tonight and what has been the theme
all year.”
The Owls’ Dalton Miller came up with a second Owls win. After tying 1-1 after three periods, Miller found himself down 2-1 in the second overtime. Miller mustered the 3-2 win with 30 seconds left in the sixth.
“It wasn’t pretty, but (Miller) found a way to win,” Weaver said. “He stayed in the match, didn’t do anything dumb, held good position and found a way to win. That’s what it’s about. When you’re in a tough match maybe it doesn’t look great, but a win is a win some days.”
Weaver said he wants to put up better performances in competition.
“We’re kind of that team that if you come in and watch us practice, you would think these guys are awesome,” Weaver said. “But were not making it happen out there yet. It hasn’t transitioned to competition. We just need to make it happen.”
Seniors Josh Rohde and Tristian Sitterding were both recognized for their commitment to the wrestling program prior to the match.
On Saturday, the Owls will compete in the Brown County Tournament starting at 9 a.m.
“We need more intensity, that was our thing tonight,” Weaver said. “When we wrestle with intensity, we can wrestle with anybody. When we went to the Mooresville Classic, which is one of the tougher tournaments in the state, we wrestled very tough. We just weren’t finding ways to win it in the last 30 seconds or overtime. I’m not going away from what I’m doing because I know it works.” They just need to quit butting heads with me and decide, ‘He’s right, it
works, and I’m going to make it work.’”