By Fred Kroner
Nine Mahomet-Seymour wrestlers won both of their matches on Tuesday (June 1) at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley as the unbeaten Bulldogs reached the 20-win mark for the season in dual meets.
M-S dispatched El Paso/Gridley 60-12 and then overpowered the host Falcons 57-18.
Finishing the night with an unblemished record were Caden Hatton (106 pounds and 113 pounds), Logan Hillard (138 pounds), Logan Petro (145 pounds), Caleb Dowers (152 pounds), Peyton Myers (160 pounds), Brennan Houser (180 pounds), Mateo Casillas (195 pounds), Daniel Renshaw (220 pounds) and Colton Crowley (285 pounds).
Six Bulldog grapplers posted pins, including three who ended their bouts in less than a minute. Casillas had a fall in 42 seconds, Crowley had one in 49 seconds and Renshaw needed 52 seconds for his fall.
Other pinners for M-S were Houser (2:30), Hillard (2:39) and Hatton (3:12).
Hatton, who has an 18-0 season record, had his closest match against GCMS. Moving up one weight class to 113 pounds, he decisioned his opponent 4-2.
Dowers also had a 4-2 win by decision and became the 24th squad member to earn a varsity victory this season.
M-S (20-0) returns to action on Thursday (June 3) at Taylorville in a meet that will also include Effingham.
Tuesday’s wins provided M-S its 24th 20-win season in school history and sixth in the past nine years.
For M-S head coach Rob Ledin, it raised his career dual-meet record to 272-91. With the Bulldogs’ first win of the season last month, Ledin surpassed Rob Porter (252 wins) as the school’s all-time winningest wrestling coach.
Marty Williams (189 wins) and Bob Handlin (130 wins) are the other former Bulldog wrestling coaches with at least 100 career wins.
In the 54 years the sport has been offered at the school, M-S has a cumulative record of 956-258-8, a 78.6 percent winning mark.
Ledin is also the winningest coach at Clinton, with 131 career dual meet wins. Counting his 18 dual-meet wins at Morton, Ledin has 421 career wrestling dual-meet wins.
