LEES CREEK – Clinton-Massie’s wrestling team opened its wrestling season Thursday with a victory over county and conference rival East Clinton 64-6 at East Clinton High School.
Clinton-Massie received forfeit victories in five weight classes while East Clinton received just one forfeit victory – Josh Jones at 106. Neither school had a wrestler at 285 pounds.
After the annual delay to the wrestling season due to the success of the football team, Clinton-Massie head coach Spencer Running was pleased with how his team opened its season.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from my guys,” Running said. “We’re almost up to a full team now. Hopefully, in a couple weeks, we can have guys where their weights allow them to be where they need to be in order to have a full lineup.”
While the final score may have been one-sided, EC head coach Doug Stehlin was pleased with the way his wrestlers competed.
“Looking at the scoreboard, looks like it wasn’t a good match for us,” Stehlin said. “But if you go back and look at the individual matches, there was three or four matches that wrestled full matches.”
Stehlin was pleased with how Noah Morgan faced the challenge of wrestling state qualifier and Indiana University-commit Davey Tunon at 152. Morgan got the bout to the end of the second period before losing by technical fall.
In addition to Morgan, Stehlin also praised Charles Erdman for a strong effort in a 10-4 defeat to Clinton-Massie’s Ross Lennon.
“We came out, we wrestled tough against some good kids,” Stehlin said.
Running knew the match was much more competitive than the score indicated and credited the Astro wrestlers.
“We did well, but East Clinton has a heck of a program right now,” Running said. “We won a lot of close matches on points. I really think they’re going to be somebody to be looked at in the SCOL.”
One thing Running hopes to see his wrestlers improve is finishing matches with pins.
“We had a lot of guys in pinning combinations,” Running said. “We weren’t quite able to finish on some of those. We’ll have to work on those.”
One Falcon wrestler that was able to finish with a pinfall was Sam Brothers, who pinned DJ Perry in 1:20 to open the dual at 195 pounds.
“I was really impressed by Sam Brothers,” Running said. “He hit a really nice move. He’s only a second-year wrestler. He’s been making improvements left and right.”
In addition to the varsity match, the two schools matched both junior high and youth wrestling squads against each other.
“It’s the one time that we wrestle with the youth,” Stehlin said. “Hopefully, the youth see what’s going on here. That’s the biggest thing we’re trying now is to keep those kids in the program and keep them coming out in junior high and high school.”
Prior to the match, Clinton-Massie athletic director Cindy Running presented a donation to the families of two East Clinton students who were killed in an automobile crash earlier in the school year.
After the presentation, each member of the Clinton-Massie wrestling team hugged the members of the families of Brandon Newman and Anderson VanNieuwenhze, seniors at EC killed in Fayette County Oct. 31.
“That was very nice of them,” Stehlin said. “Lots of respect to Massie and the Massie wrestling family for that. We really appreciate that and their parents really appreciate that.”
SUMMARY
Dec. 17, 2015
@East Clinton High School
Clinton-Massie 64, East Clinton 6
• 195: Sam Brothers (CM) pin DJ Perry (EC) 1:20
• 220: Jackson Grigsby (CM) win by forfeit
• 285: Double forfeit
• 106: Josh Jones (EC) win by forfeit
• 113: Nathan Allgyer (CM) win by forfeit
• 120: Matt Asher (CM) maj. dec. Austin Brock (EC) 9-0
• 126: Jared Isaacs (CM) win by forfeit
• 132: Bryson Mills (CM) win by forfeit
• 138: Zack Dillow (CM) win by forfeit
• 145: Christian Poynter (CM) maj. dec. Cameron Yankey (EC) 8-0
• 152: Davey Tunon (CM) tech fall Noah Morgan (EC) 16-0
• 160: Ross Lennon (CM) dec. Charles Erdman (EC) 10-4
• 170: Anthony Tissander (CM) pin Cameron Bloch (EC) 1:39
• 182: Cody Collingham (CM) pin Robert Norman (EC) 1:08
