Seymour’s Logan Cunningham pins Bedford North Lawrence’s Asher Arce during their 182-pound wrestling match Thursday night. The Owls won 45-27.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Seymour senior Chase Rogers prepares to put Bedford North Lawrence’s Ely Benish on his back for a pin during their 138-pound match Thursday night. The Owls had six pins and won 45-27.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Seymour’s Nic Frady pins Bedford North Lawrence’s Logan Borden in the second period of their 145-pound match Thursday night. Frady helped the Owls win 45-27.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
The Seymour wrestling team came up with six pins to roll to a 45-27 win over Bedford North Lawrence in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium Thursday night.
Owls coach Dan Rasey said he felt like his wrestlers put up good efforts.
“For inexperienced as we are — we started 10 freshmen or sophomores today — so we have a lot of young guys in the lineup and they came out, they battled. All I asked them to do was go out there and give me six minutes of everything they had and I think we pretty well did that.
“Even in the matches that we weren’t victorious in, I feel we were in there and we were battling. We just made a mistake here or there.”
The IHSAA rotates the starting point of the matches each week and this week the 182-pounders were the first wrestlers to battle, and Logan Cunningham got the Owls off to a good start with a pin in 1:17 over Asher Arce.
After Diego Aguilar lost a pin at 195, Brenden Bridgewater won a forfeit at 220. Jesus Aguilar was also by pin at 285.
AnnMarie Shuler pinned her 106-pound opponent in 2:28 before Charlie Bruce lost 14-8 to Patrell Childs at 113.
Ricky Bogard got the momentum back for the Owls with a pin against Jayden Johnson at 4:29 of their 120-pound match. Brody Bowles was pinned in 3:55 of their 126-pound match.
The Owls then showed their strength in the middle weights as Jonathan Venegas gained a pin in 3:15 at 132, Chase Rogers pinned in 138-pound opponent in 1:08, Nic Frady gained a fall in 2:55 at 145, and Sam Chandler scored a takedown in each period for a 6-2 win over Ethan Stancorne at 152.
Neither team entered a 160-pound wrestler. BNL’s Jason Dowell pinned Alex Juan in 2:38 at 170 in the final match of the night.
Rasey said he was pleased to see his seniors — Venegas, Rogers and Chandler — gain wins on the mat.
“We have some great leaders on this team between Chase, Sam and Brenden up top. Jonathan Venegas has come in this year, a brand new kid, and he has just kind of picked it up,” Rasey said. “He’s a future Marine so leadership is kind of natural to him. So the seniors have kind of taken the team under their wings.”
Each team had six takedowns at the start of the matches and Rasey said, “We’re progressing a lot on our feet and on top. We still have a decent way to go on the bottom.”
Rogers said he has five pins for the season and his overall record is 7-4. “Before my match I had the right mindset that I’m going to go out there and win. I feel like if I wrestle not to lose then it’s a lot different than if I wrestle to win.
“So I want to go out and be aggressive. I definitely try to score the first takedown, so I like to set the pace.”
Winning JV matches for the Owls were Nolan Keyes with a 10-4 decision and Drew Banister with a pin in 3:08.
The Owls will compete in the Jeffersonville Classic Saturday, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
“I’m just hoping to wrestle the best I can,” Rogers said.
There will be 24 teams at Jeff, and the girls will wrestle against other girls.