Columbus East’s Eric Duncan holds onto Seymour’s Briley Compton during their 160-pound match during a wrestling meet in the Orange Pit at Columbus East at High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Pins, pins and more pins.
That was the theme in the season opener for the Columbus East wrestling team Thursday night. The Olympians won 13 of the 14 matches, with 10 of them coming by the way of the pin to easily secure a 70-3 win in their season opener over Seymour.
East has a lot of experienced wrestlers on the team, but a lot of Olympians wrestled in their first varsity matched. East coach Chris Cooper was very pleased with the performance.
“I thought our effort was really, really good. It was our first varsity match, so some of these guys, it was the first match for some of these guys. Trying to keep nerves in check is big,” Cooper said. “A lot of these guys wrestled in their first ever varsity match. There’s a lot of experience on our team, but not a lot of varsity experience necessarily. I thought the kids handled themselves really, really well. They were good teammates, they were engaged in one another’s matches and I thought we wrestled great.”
Cameron Crider started off the night for East at 152 pounds with a 6-5 decision over Nic Frady. Next for the Olympians came seven straight falls — Eric Duncan over Briley Compton in the third period at 160, Mitchell Williams in the first period over Brandon Mora at 170, Tyler Lake in the first period over Lalo Bustos at 182, Jackson Fox in the second period over Diego Aguilar at 195, Tommy Morrill in the first period over Brandon Bridgewater at 220, Patrick McMahon in the first period over Jesus Aguilar at 285 and Talon Jessup in the second period over Charlie Bruce at 106.
Aiden Miller with a 6-0 decision over Annmarie Shuler at 113. Liam Krueger won by fall in the second period over Liam Chandler at 126, and Caleb Cooper won by fall in the third period over Jonathan Venegas at 132. Bo Wagner won a 14-3 major decision over Chase Rogers at 138, and Nate Anderson won by fall in the second period over Jonathan Scott at 145.
The Owls prevented a shutout when Ricky Bogard defeated Gage Rutan with a 6-4 decision at 120.
The Olympians’ next contest will be at the Jeffersonville Duals on Saturday.
“It was nice to get one under our belt. I’m looking forward to Saturday,” Cooper said.
