Bluefield, WV - The Big Blue wrestling teams completed their dual meet seasons in a series of Conference Carolinas duals in Ned Schott gymnasium. The men's team defeated Lincoln Memorial on Thursday evening by a score of 29-19, while the women won by a 25-5 margin. On Friday, the women fell to Emmanuel by a score of 45-5, and the men came from behind to top the visiting lions with a score of 23-21.
Against Lincoln Memorial, the women were dominant in their performances. Caitlyn Ash continued her strong sophomore season, converting an underhook throw into a series of turns culminating in another pin for the Saint Albans native. Ibtasam "Sami" Saleh converted a front headlock to a single-leg attack and finished with a cradle to secure the fall. Hannah Catungal scored the third fall of the dual with a pin in 48 seconds.
The men's dual against the visiting Rail Splitters was highlighted by dominant performances from freshmen Moses Eads and Kairyn Hall. Eads scored fast and often and ran out to a 16-1 lead to score a technical fall victory. Hall followed that up with a first-period fall of his own.
Against Emmanuel, in the final home dual of the season, the Big Blue men showed grit and toughness, winning several close matches critical to the final score. Ryder "Larry" Rhodes added to his team-leading win tally with an overtime takedown, converting a single leg to score the sudden-victory win. At 149 lbs., Enrique Sanchez won his 18th match of the year with a fall in the second period. At 157 lbs., Moses Eads scored his second technical fall in less than 24 hours, using aggressive top wrestling to score several turns for the match-ending score. Kairyn Hall bumped up to 165 lbs. after weighing in at 157 and gutted out a 4-3 victory over his Lion's opponent on the strength of an escape and a takedown. The Big Blue forfeited at 174 and bumped freshman Thomas Dolo up to 184 lbs. where he used several takedowns to earn himself an 11-5 decision over his 6 ft 5 in opponent. Dolo's win brought the team score to 21-20 in favor of the visiting Lions. At heavyweight, Greg Dennard, giving up nearly 50 pounds, converted a single leg in the first period, a reversal off of a Granby roll in the third period, and a boatload of riding time to build a 6-0 lead that clinched the dual 23-21 for the Big Blue.
Coach Gardner's thoughts: "This was a tough couple of days. Back-to-back weigh-ins are always a tough ask of the kids, but they rose to the challenge and competed well. I don't think we wrestled all that well in some spots technically, and we made a couple of tactical mistakes, but we wrestled tough, and we showed guts in difficult situations. That is worth more than you can imagine, the ability to be tough when things aren't going your way. On the women's end, Hannah and Caitlyn continue to do what we expect of them. Emmanuel is a very good, long-established women's program, so we now know what we need to do to raise our level to get where we want to go."
"On the men's side, the victory over Emmanuel was a significant milestone in our program's history. Last year, they blasted us 56-0 at their place. To win here, even after giving up 18 points in forfeits due to injuries, was huge. We now have six dual wins on the season, which is equal to the total number of victories in the first three years of the program combined. The program never had a 20-match winner before; we have three now, with two more guys likely to join that group in the next few weeks. I'm also really proud of guys like Moses, Kai, and Dolo, who were willing to move up in weight for the team's sake. They are tough kids who get what we are trying to do here."
