By Fred Kroner
Despite being short-handed, the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High wrestling team captured wins in six of eight dual meets last week.
On Tuesday (Jan. 25), M-S lost at Mount Zion, 54-45, and then defeated Clinton, 57-42.
On Thursday (Jan. 27), the Bulldogs won at Prairie Central, 69-28, but lost to Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, 57-42.
On Saturday (Jan. 29) in a dual-meet tournament at Petersburg Porta, M-S beat the host school, 72-23, as well as posting wins over Beardstown, 78-21, Havana, 102-6, and Tremont, 54-48.
“We had some adversity, having six of our varsity wrestlers out as well as an additional nine JV wrestlers (on Tuesday),” M-S coach James Heinold said. “Some of the JV wrestlers had to step into a varsity role with only a few weeks of competition under their belt. I was very pleased with how they stepped in to fill the holes that we had on the varsity level.”
Among the JV wrestlers who filled in were Caleb Scott, Izaiah Brotherton, Chris Dill and Ashton Lamb.
“Three of the four wrestlers that stepped into this tough role were sixth-graders,” Heinold added.
Two M-S grapplers went 8-0 for the week: Justus Vrona (95 pounds) and Beau Back (105 pounds).
For the week, 13 Bulldogs posted at least one pin. Collectively, M-S amassed 40 pins.
Vrona and Marco Casillas (135 pounds) were the leaders, each registering five pins.
Colton McClure (100 pounds) collected four pins as did Joshua Craig (145 pounds). Finishing the week with three pins were Back, Liam Noonan (90 pounds), Chris Dill (126 pounds), Phillip Daniels (185 pounds) and Noah Daniels (215 pounds).
Winning twice by pins were Gideon Hayter (75 pounds), Niko Truax (85 pounds) and Talon Decker (112 pounds).
Wyatt Bell (80 pounds) had one pin.
M-S (10-2) is scheduled to return to action on Saturday (Feb. 5) with its Bulldog Invitational tournament. A Thursday meet for Thursday (Feb. 3) has been postponed.
To date, Back is the team-leader in wins with 20. Other team leaders are Casillas (18), Decker (18), Hayter (17), McClure (16) and Vrona (14).
