Chad Craft won by a fall in 3:16 vs Lakota East 113 pounder Cristian Chavez.
Photo by Ron Nunnari
Solomon Miller gains the advantage in the 160 pound match vs Alec Meszaros.
Photo by Ron Nunnari
Chase Craft won by a fall in 3:34 against Sean Ackerman.
Photo by Ron Nunnari
Bryan Heyward scored a 9-2 decision over Lakota East wrestler Drew Henson in the 170 pound match.
Photo by Ron Nunnari
Hunter Terrill won a hard fought 2-0 decision in the 145 pound match vs Derrick Apking.
Photo by Ron Nunnari
CLAYTON — Northmont’s wrestling team scored a 33-23 victory Saturday night over Lakota East, but the Thunderbolts still appear to be struggling through a late season funk.
Even though the Thunderbolts won the match, Coach Scott Newburg felt his team came out flat.
“I just think we were flat again tonight,” Newburg said. “We practice so hard working on certain things like our technique, but some of these kids come out here and flat out don’t even try. We put ourselves in a position to win, but we have kids in the third period of matches trailing by two or three points that don’t attempt to do anything. It’s really frustrating. If we plan to do anything positive next week in the state duals or in the conference tournament, then we have to get past this. We are competitive in these matches trailing by a couple of points with 30 seconds to go, but we are just not putting the effort into it or pushing the action and we are losing those matches. We’ve got to get out of that habit because once we get in so deep it is going to be hard to get out.”
The contest against Lakota East opened with the 170 pound match between Bryan Heyward and the Thunderhawks’ Drew Henson. Heyward scored a 9-2 decision to put the Thunderbolts up 3-0.
A forfeit by East at 182 put Northmont up 9-0. In the 195 match Dylan Moran took leads of 2-0 and 4-2 at the end of the first two rounds on his way to a 5-2 decision over Chris Cubas to increase Northmont’s lead to 12-0.
Chuck Saul injured his knee during the third round of the 220 pound match and lost by injury default to Matt Spaulding with East awarded six team points.
In the heavyweight match Jon Spaulding scored three more points for the Thunderhawks by scoring a 4-2 victory in overtime vs David Henson.
Lakota East took a 13-12 lead when Kyle Clark scored a 9-0 major decision over Luke Holloway in the 106 pound match.
Chad Craft (113) put Northmont back on top 18-13 when he won by a fall in 3:16 against Cristian Chavez.
The Thunderhawks regained the lead 19-18 when Jackson Leahy (120) won by a fall vs Bailey Smith.
Chase Craft won by a fall in 3:34 vs Sean Ackerman to put the T-Bolts on top 24-19. A double forfeit at 132 kept the score the same and a forfeit by East at 138 put Northmont up 30-19.
The 145 pound match saw Hunter Terrill battle his way to a hard fought 2-0 decision over Derrick Apking to increase Northmont’s lead to 33-19 where the score remained after a double forfeit at 152.
In the final match of the evening Lakota East 160 pounder Alec Meszaros scored a 12-3 major decision vs Solomon Miller to make the final tally 33-23.
“We just have too many kids right now that are giving up late in their matches,” Newburg added. “Our focus is to always wrestle at people all the time, not wrestle with them and we are not doing that right now. Until that happens it is going to be a long rest of the season.”
Northmont will host the Region VII State Dual Wednesday featuring Stebbins, Butler and Beavercreek. At 5 p.m. Butler and Beavercreek will square off while Northmont faces Stebbins. The two winning teams will then face each other to determine who advances to the regional semifinal the following Wednesday at 5 p.m. at a location to be announced.
Reach Ron Nunnari at 684-9124, via email Rnunnari@civitasmedia.com or on Twitter @Englewood_Ind
