For The Tribune
Brandon Peneger, Jerren Keller and John Newton came up with pins for the Seymour wrestling team Thursday night, but it wasn’t enough for the Owls to pull a senior night win.
Jennings County had five pins, three decisions, won a match by forfeit and another match by default to go home with a 51-21 win.
Prior to the meet, Owl seniors Newton, Tyler Bicknell, Garrett Johnson and Josiah Rudge, along with their parents, were introduced.
Owls coach Todd Weaver said they have been a major part of the program.
“They have won a lot of matches over their careers,” he said. “Just this year, I’ll bet they have close to 90 wins or more. What they do is make the younger kids in the room better.
“When you get that it is important to the younger kids. They’re going to be hard to replace next year because of what they’ve been doing in the room and what they’re going to leave behind. They’ve helped the young kids mature.”
Weaver said his team wrestled hard.
“Obviously, they’re a tough team. They’ve been a tough team for a long time. There were a lot of matches we went out to win those matches, and some of them we did, and some of them we didn’t.
“The plus is, I thought we wrestled Jennings County harder than we have in the last three years. That wasn’t enough tonight, but I really think we’ve wrestled them harder than any time since I’ve been here. I’m sure other teams have done it before me, but that was a plus for me. There was some intensity out there. I like that. We just didn’t roll over because it’s a red, white and blue singlet across from us.”
After Isaiah Pichardo lost by pin and Seymour forfeited at 113, Penegar pinned up the Owls’ first pin.
He scored takedowns against Xavier Barberis in the first and second periods and gained a pin in 3:19.
After John Shuffitt lost an 8-4 decision at 126, Keller came up with a pin against Cody Ruble in 1:23
Weaver was especially pleased with that performance.
“We put in a (junior varsity) at 132, and he not only went out and got a fall for us. That was huge. You could kind of see the team get up more afterwards. I thought that was really great, and that kid has done that for us all year. No matter what we ask the kid to do he goes out and battles.”
Newton had Seymour’s quickest pin of the night, in 28 seconds against Alex Shelton at 182.
Seymour’s other win came from Dalton Miller, with a 6-3 victory against Dakota Pearson at 220.
Miller had takedowns in the first and second periods.
The Owls finished 15-4 in dual meets for the regular season.
“Negatives were, we got one guy hurt a week and a half before sectionals,” Weaver said.
Bicknell and Jennings County’s Christopher Redmond wrestled through two periods with neither wrestler scoring a point. At the end of the second period, Bicknell suffered a hyper-extended elbow and could not continue.
“You’ve got to give it a little rest, but keep it mobile and that type of stuff, and keep and you can get it tightened up,” Weaver said. “I don’t think was a bad (injury), it was just at the moment he didn’t have a lot of strength in it.
“And then Garrett (Johnson) had a 1-0 match. We’ve got to finish that match. We’ve either got to get a takedown in the first period or get an escape.”
Johnson lost to Brooks Wathen 1-0 when Wathen got an escape in the third period.
Weaver noted that Cheaney Reichenbacker was ahead of Zane Bieneke 4-0 before he lost by a pin in the second period.
Weaver said Reichenbacker also held a lead against Bieneke last week in the conference.
Zach Newton (152), Braden Thomasma (160), Leo Pena (170) and Noah Briseno (heavyweight) lost their matches by pin.
“We’re in matches. We’ve just got to find ways to win them and turn those negatives into positives,” Weaver said.
The Owls will wrestle in the sectional at Jennings County on Jan. 30.