By Fred Kroner
Fifty-six years after the Mahomet-Seymour wrestling program won its first dual meet, the Bulldogs captured their historic 1,000th victory.
The milestone was reached on Saturday (Dec. 10) in the fourth of five dual meets that M-S captured in the Bloomington Super Duals. The win for coach Rob Ledin’s team was a 64-15 triumph over Mascoutah.
The dual-meet victory was clinched at 170 pounds when Bulldog Cale Hillard earned a 17-2 technical fall victory, giving M-S an insurmountable 34-15 lead.
In other dual meets on Saturday, the Bulldogs blitzed Belleville East, 53-20, Granite City, 72-12, Triad, 63-12, and Pekin, 69-6.
For the day, M-S wrestlers had a cumulative record of 56-14 with 38 of the wins occurring by pins. Twenty M-S wrestlers won at least one match, including 15 individuals who registered pins. Twelve different Bulldogs recorded pins in less than a minute.
Two M-S grapplers (Caden Hatton at 113 pounds) and Gage Decker at 152 pounds) were 5-0 for the day. Decker collected four pins (the quickest in 34 seconds) and Hatton posted three pins (the fastest in 49 seconds).
Three Bulldogs were 4-0 for the day (Colton McClure at 106 pounds, Colton Crowley at 220 pounds and Camden Harms at 285 pounds).
Harms had four pins, including the team’s quickest of the day (19 seconds). Overall, he had three sub one-minute falls. McClure and Crowley each finished with three pins. McClure’s quickest was 33 seconds and Crowley’s fastest took place in 1 minute and 20 seconds.
Crowley’s first win on Saturday was a pin in 2 minutes and 44 seconds which was his 100th career varsity victory.
Also winning four matches for the day were Tallen Pawlak, who was 4-1 at 145 pounds, Justus Vrona, who was 4-1 at 120 pounds and Cale Hillard, who was 4-1 at 170 pounds. Of Pawlak’s three falls, the quickest was in 51 seconds. Of Vrona’s two pins, the fastest was in 36 seconds. Hillard earned three pins, the quickest in 51 seconds.
Four Bulldog competitors claimed three wins for the day, including Mateo Casillas, who was 3-0 at 195 pins. He pinned all three of his opponents, the fastest in 31 seconds.
Casillas, the team’s lone unbeaten wrestler for the season (11-0) is three wins shy of moving into 10th place in the school’s record book for career wins. He currently has 132 high school victories.
Teammates who were 3-1 for the day at Bloomington were Camden Heinold (132 pounds), Deandre Hughey (160 pounds) and Brennan Houser (182 pounds).
Heinold recorded three pins (the fastest in 38 seconds), Hughey had two pins (the quickest in 2:16) and Houser had one pin, capturing it in 39 seconds for his 100th career varsity victory.
Houser started the day with back-to-back technical falls, extending his streak of consecutive technical falls to four.
With 24 career technical falls, Houser has moved into fourth place on the M-S career list in that category.
Other M-S entries who claimed wins by pin were Reese Wilson (two pins at 126 pounds, including one in 52 seconds), Donovan Lewis (one pin at 138 pounds in 2:33) and Zach Hammond (one pin at 220 pounds, coming in 39 seconds).
M-S (9-1) returns to action on Tuesday (Dec. 13) in a special dual meet at home against Clinton. Besides being the Bulldogs’ home-opener, former M-S wrestlers and coaches are being invited back and all in attendance will be recognized at 5:45 p.m., about 15 minutes before the match is scheduled to start.
M-S’ all-time record in wrestling dual meets stands at 1,000-263-8. Ledin is the school’s ninth head coach and also the program’s top career winner.
Now in his 17th season, he has a career record at M-S of 318-96. His 27-year record as a head coach – which includes an eight-year stint at Clinton – is 466-175.
Wrestling made its debut at M-S during the 1967-68 school year. The Bulldogs ended with a 3-4 dual-meet record in that first year, the only year that Norman Bohnsack was the coach.
Starting with the 1972-73 school year, M-S has compiled a winning record – or a .500 record – in dual meets in 49 of the last 50 years.
