NEW PALESTINE — Seldom do both coaches come away pleased after a competition when one side wins decisively over the other.
But, that was the case after Wednesday’s boys wrestling dual meet between Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference rivals New Palestine and Mt. Vernon.
New Palestine won its ninth straight dual, which includes — after Wednesday’s 51-15 victory over Mt. Vernon — a clean sweep over county schools. During the nine-win stretch, New Palestine also had wins over Greenfield-Central and Eastern Hancock.
Mt. Vernon gave up 18 points on three forfeits and won four of 11 competed matches. The Marauders had a makeshift lineup due to a number of wrestlers being out sick or injured. Many of those that competed Wednesday were just returning after fighting illnesses.
“I’m thrilled,” Mt. Vernon coach Randal Hayes said. “We had four guys out of our lineup with injuries, a couple are still ineligible, our 38 and 20 were sick and we’re almost all freshmen and sophomores. (New Palestine is) considered one of the top 3A teams in the state and, the score doesn’t reflect it, but that was a tight dual. It really was. We’ve been talking with our guys a lot about staying with the process and win the third period and I think we won most of the third periods. For a young group that’s important.”
New Palestine won by fall in four of its seven victorious competitions and won four in a row — five including a forfeit — after Mt. Vernon was victorious in two of the first three contests. The Dragons had three of their pins during their winning streak.
“No complaints on my part,” New Palestine head coach Andrew Frey said. “I thought we were gunning pretty hard for bonus points and that’s kind of been our theme the last couple weeks, trying to put as many team points on the board we can and they have been doing a good job of that. They worked hard for it even in matches we didn’t get it.”
The Dragons won by forfeit at 285 — the opening match of the night — 120 and 138.
In the first contested match, at 106, Mt. Vernon’s Ty Barnhart beat Blake Doss 8-5. New Pal rebounded with a 6-2 win by Landon Stranger over Bobby Shirey in the 113-class match. After another forfeit, Mt. Vernon won the headliner at 126.
In a battle of a state-qualifier and state-placer, Mt. Vernon’s Eli Broady defeated New Pal’s Gunner Butt 6-4. Broady qualified for the state meet last year in the 120 class. Butt was a sixth-place finisher at state at 106.
The Broady win cut New Pal’s led to 15-6, which included 12 forfeit points, but that’s when the wins with bonus points started coming New Pal’s way.
The Dragons followed by winning the next four contested matches and five overall.
They scored 24 points in a matter of minutes.
At 132, Cole Vandygriff won by fall over Carson Hill in 59 seconds. Following Peyton Hornsby’s forfeit at 138, Bryce Doss won by fall over Rob Dodson in 1:59 in the 144 match. Elijah Alonso took just 1:15 to win by fall in the 150-class match against Baylor Cobb.
At 157, New Pal won again, this time by decision. Jaedyn Jeffries picked up a 6-3 win over Brooks McKeeman.
The teams split the final four matches.
At 165, Mt. Vernon’s Shawn Taylor pinned Gabe Flick in 1:06.
At 175, New Palestine’s Gavin Wilcher defeated Vanden Vail 6-2.
The Dragons picked up another six points at 190 with a fall in 1:22 by Brandon Brees over Joliba Brogan.
In the final match of the night, another between top competitors from both sides, Devin Kendrex of Mt. Vernon, a fifth-place finisher in the state meet last season at 220, beat New Pal semi-state qualifier Shaun Glass 8-3.
The Marauders are back in action against another conference foe Friday at Delta. The Dragons return to the mat on Saturday at the Henry Wilk Invitational at Mishawaka Penn.
