Columbus North’s Morgan Clark and Jennings County’s Brook Wheatley grapple during a 190-pound match Wednesday in Memorial Gymnasium at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Starting at 105 pounds Wednesday night, Columbus North took the first two matches to grab an early 12-0 lead on Jennings County.
But after that, the Panthers took control. They won six matches by pin and two more by forfiet to claim a 48-18 girls wrestling victory.
“The girls wrestled hard,” Jennings coach Carl Pemberton said. “The girls came out and were aggressive and were executing a lot of things that we’ve been working on in practice. The stuff we’ve been working on in practice is starting to show.”
The Bull Dogs got a forfeit win from Gwen McKay at 105 and a first-period pin from Paris Lopez-Pendaz at 110. But their only other victory was a forfeit from Fatima Aguilar Castillo at 235.
“Paris is looking really good,” North coach Lindsey Prozanski said. “I’m excited to see Gwen and Fatima wrestle this weekend at the Bronco Classic up in Daleville.”
The Panthers used first-period pins from Sofia Lazcano (115), Violeta Gomez-Hilerio (130), Savannah Bannister (155), Gabby Hernandez (170) and Brooklyn Wheatley (190) and a second-period pin from Baylee Franks at 100 to close the dual. Lilly Wells (120) and Chloe Franks (135) won by forfeit.
The 125-, 140- and 145-pound weight classes were double forfeits.
“We’re really thinking of the long game, so I always tell my girls we don’t worry too much about our matches at the beginning of the season because we always peak at the right time,” Prozanski said. “We always peak at the end of the season when it matters most. I think a lot of it was the fear of the spotlight on them, even if we are wrestling in the center of the mat, but I think they’ll be more prepared when we do the same thing when we wrestle Madison and Columbus East here in December.”
Jennings will compete in the Purdue Poly Englewood Invitational Saturday.
“We have a pretty good stretch of meets coming up here where we’re to wrestle four times in eight days, so we’re going to be busy,” Pemberton said. “We’re not going to have a whole lot of time to work on stuff, but we’ll keep working when we can and keep getting ready for state finals this year.”
