The start sent Bellwood-Antis fans into a tizzy at Bellwood-Antis on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, wrestling matches consist of 14 weight classes and by the time Blue Devil 119-pounder Eli Colyer had his hand raised to receive a forfeit win, Glendale had scored a 42-36 win over the hosts at the B-A Middle School gym.
The match began at the 125-pound weight class with Brandon Beech catching Glendale’s Brad Sweitzer for a quick takedown and followed up with a pin with just 0:36 wrestled. At 130, Ricky Shawley duplicated the feat, decking the Vikings’ Josh Clarkson in 1:02 to jump Bellwood-Antis into a 12-0 lead.
The two Tri-County League opponents then traded six-point decisions in the next five weights with the Blue Devils maintaining their 12-point advantage.
Merv Killion got Glendale on the scoreboard at 135,, running out to a 8-0 lead on B-A sophomore Ronnie Wilson before recording the pin in 2:38 to slice the Bellwood-Antis lead in half to 12-6. At 140, Dustin Harris improved his record to 6-6 by collecting a fall over James Haney in 1:04, and Josh Ervine got the first of two B-A forfeit wins at 140, to extend the B-A lead to 24-6.
Ron Colyer and the Vikings’ Kelly Tarr were involved in a close match at 152, with Colyer ahead 1-0 in the middle of the second period, when Tarr suddenly reversed Colyer to his back for a pin in 3:27.
Josh Hanna, a Blue Devil senior, who was wrestling in his final match before undergoing surgery to correct a problem from an automobile accident last a year ago, scored a fast takedown at 160, and showed Josh Wombacher the lights in 0:25, the fastest fall of the night.
Glendale then showed their superiority in the heavyweights with three straight falls with Brandon Baker pinning Jonathan Davila in 1:37 at 171, Alan Collins moved up to 189, to pin Dwayne Cherry with just 17 seconds left in the match (5:43), and Robert Shomo put Brian Dougherty’s shoulders to the mat in 0:42 at 275.
“We knew they were going to be stronger in the upper weights,” Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson explained. “It was one of those situations where if we get enough points and hang on it would be O-K, if we couldn’t… plus they made a couple moves with their lineup that didn’t work out to our favor. In hindsight, if we would have done things slightly differently, it might have been a different result, but I like to send the kids out to let them wrestle, so that’s what we did.”
Although it lasted less than a full period, the match at 171, between Davila and Baker was probably the most exciting of the night. Wrestling for the first time this year, Davila hit a single leg for the opening takedown and a 2-0 lead. Baker registered a reversal and Davila reversed him right back. Baker escaped and took Davila down, only to have Davila escape to draw into a 5-5 tie. Just when it seemed the two wrestlers might go back and forth for the entire six minutes, Baker grabbed a takedown and put Davila on his back for the fall.
The final weight class to be wrestled was another wild and woolly affair between B-A freshman Don Partner and Glendale sophomore Bobby Chirdon. The two had already met twice at the Tri-County Tournament over last weekend with Chirdon pinning Partner each time early in the second period. On Tuesday, Partner got the jump on Chirdon scoring first on a takedown, before the Viking 103-pounder scored a reversal and nearfall to lead 5-2 at the end of one period. Partner choose the top position to begin the second stanza. Chirdon reversed to up his advantage to 7-2, Partner got a reversal of his own to cut the score to 7-4, but Chirdon reversed Partner again and just beat the buzzer to end the second period with a 3:59 pin.
Glendale weighed in only one wrestler at 119, and then moved him up to face Beech to start the match at 125, so everyone knew Eli Colyer would end the dual by receiving a win by forfeit.
“We are fighting an uphill battle right now,” said Wilson. “We have gotten into a hole. We are 0-3 dual meet-wise and have Tyrone coming up on the horizon (the next dual meet for the Blue Devils, Jan. 6), so we have some pretty tough competition coming up. All we can do is keep working at it, keep trying to improve and eventually one of these days, it will take care of itself. I’m not displeased with what our kids did. I’m not real pleased with the score, but I am pleased with the effort.”
