FORTVILLE — They never really expected this.
From their coach to the four seniors that helped lead the squad, the Mt. Vernon wrestling team didn’t know they’d be this good this year.
With a 69-9 win against Shenandoah on Senior Night, the Marauders improved to 22-2 on the season, tying a school record for wins and soundly beating the best winning percentage in school history.
They figured they’d be pretty good. But this good?
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“Absolutely not. There’s no way,” senior PJ Sterrett said. “Freshman year, if you told us we’re going 22-2 our senior year, that was no way happening. We probably all would have laughed in your face.”
Sterrett was the only one of the four seniors who had a chance to compete Wednesday night, as illnesses forced Shenandoah to forfeit seven matches out of 14.
The Senior Night competition was pretty much over before it began because of that, but Sterrett and some of the younger Marauders took to the mats and took down a ranked Shenandoah team for the second time this season — Mt. Vernon beat the Raiders previously 55-24 on Dec. 1 at the Westfield Shamrock Duals.
Following two forfeits, Chris Wilkerson started things off in the first match of the night with a 10-0 major decision win. Max Hayes won by fall. Charlie Moore won by fall in the first period and Parker Smitley won with a fall in the second period.
The other non-forfeit win for the Marauders came from the only competing senior. Getting the opportunity to compete on his home mat for the last time was important to Sterrett, and he came out of it with a dominant win.
“I knew since the other guys couldn’t get out there and compete, it meant a lot that I could represent them in my match and just go balls to the wall for as long as I could,” Sterrett said. “I ended up wrestling pretty well and ended up getting a tech fall in the second. It’s always good representing the seniors.”
Unable to compete but all picking up forfeit wins were fellow seniors Chase Wilkerson, Drake Kendrex and Jake Skotnicki.
Having the opportunity to be there with their teammates, celebrating their careers and season with a blowout victory, helped dampen any disappointment of not getting to wrestle.
“It means a lot for us,” Skotnicki said. “We’re a family here, and we ended the season on a really good note. Finished it up with a bang, started it with a bang.”
The season started off on a strong note, with the Marauders winning all five of their matches at the Lawrence Township Duals.
They haven’t looked back since, racking up win after win. Wednesday night’s victory was the 81st dual win of the senior’s high school careers, an impressive four-year stretch.
“I knew we were going to be really good, but I didn’t know how good we were going to be,” Kendrex said. “We started off our first tournament beating big teams, and I thought man, we might be pretty good this year. And then we just kept rolling, and kept rolling, kept rolling. It’s an amazing feeling. I’m speechless. It’s awesome.”
The Marauders thrived this season behind strong leadership from their senior class — “They mean everything, coach Chad Masters said.
“It just starts with the leadership. We’ve got great leadership,” Masters added. “Those seniors came out and they worked hard every day. The young kids, they don’t know anything different. They know that they are going to have to come in that room, and they are going to have to work hard.”
The only blemishes this season were to two of the state’s top teams, Roncalli and Warren Central, both ranked in the top 11 in Indiana Mat’s latest Power Poll. Shenandoah, ranked No. 8 in Class 1A, sits 12th in that poll.
Outside of those two losses, the Marauders have beaten everybody they’ve faced, including all seven of their Hoosier Heritage Conference opponents.
That’s a big confidence booster heading into this Saturday’s HHC championship, where the four seniors will try to lead Mt. Vernon to a conference title.
Now that they know how good the are, the Mt. Vernon seniors have some big goals for their finale.
“We’ve already beat every team in our conference, so I feel like we’ll be able to win conference this weekend,” Wilkerson said. “I’m hoping that we at least get, I’m going to say six, to state, because we’re that good. I’d say our whole team could make it to regionals if we really push.”