NEW PALESTINE — With the team down 56-0 by the time they made it to the heavyweight match, it was definitely a rough night, New Palestine head wrestling coach Alex Johns said.
The Dragons were facing down Cathedral, the No. 1-ranked team in the state. Losing match after match despite sending strong contenders to the mat made the scoreboard look increasingly demoralizing.
But even the roughest nights, like Wednesday’s 72-3 loss, often have moments that provide them with something to show for their pain, Johns said. And Wednesday night, that moment arrived when New Palestine’s Jacob Brittsan squared off with Cathedral’s Alex Taylor for the 285 match, front and center.
Brittsan, an offensive lineman for the school’s football championship team, was coming off the high of a state championship victory last weekend. They had one week of wrestling practice before getting pitted against the best team of the state; they were in completely different territory, Brittsan said.
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But despite weighing in at just around 235, Brittsan was heading into the 285 bout with one thing on his mind, he said.
“I just wanted to get us on the board,” Brittsan said with a grin and a shrug.
At the first whistle, the wrestlers were neck and neck throughout the first period, fighting to a stalemate. In the second, Brittsan started on bottom and went for a sit out escape. Taylor quickly followed, but in a display of agility uncommon for a heavyweight, Brittsan flipped head over heels, rolling over his shoulder and nailing a reversal to get the first score of the match.
The two battled back and forth, each grappler taking turns seizing the advantage, with neither one maintaining full control. In the final minute of the match, with the score tied 5-5, the crowd’s roars were deafening. Taylor taking the top, he shoved Brittsan’s head into the mat in a full nelson — an illegal hold — and the referee stopped the match to call the penalty, awarding Brittsan with a point. Outraged, Taylor stood up and swore, prompting the ref to give another point to Brittsan for unsportsmanlike conduct.
With only 15 seconds to go, Brittsan held on and refused to be moved. At the final buzzer, he’d won the match 7-5.
“My thought was going out there to get the first win of the night,” Brittsan said, wiping sweat from his brow, which was already developing a few purple bruises a few minutes after his match. “You know, just trying to get points on the board so we don’t have a goose egg.”
While the whole gymnasium was up on their feet cheering for the heavyweight match, the final scoreboard still ended up reading 72-3. There’s not much to say after suffering a loss in a blow-out dual meet against the best team in the state, Johns said. But they can relish small victories like Brittsan’s and let it motivate them to push on.
It’s not the end of the season yet, Johns added. Throughout the night Cathedral helped expose some of the team’s weaknesses, which shows them exactly what they need to work on as they continue to the next team.
“We’re going to figure out what we did wrong, get out of our heads and keep moving forward,” Johns said.
