West Holmes wrestling falls to Waynedale in annual Backyard Brawl

The annual Backyard Brawl between the West Holmes and Waynedale varsity wrestling teams will have bragging rights remaining in Wayne County for another year as the Knights dropped a 46-24 dual meet to the Golden Bears Tuesday, Dec. 16 at Waynedale High School.

“Hats off to Waynedale,” Knights coach Scott Vaughn said. “They have an excellent team with a lot of talent and a lot of grit. In almost every single match, they came out aggressive and looked like they wanted to win the match. The coaching staff has done a really nice job.”

The Knights spotted the Golden Bears six points right from the start with a forfeit at 106 pounds. Colton Garver (113) fought back from being behind to earn a pin at 4:33 to knot the team score at 6-6. That was as close as the Knights would get to Waynedale for the rest of the dual.

With six straight Waynedale wins between 126 and 150, four of them bonus point wins, the Knights trailed 34-6. Louden Dixon (157) scored a fall win at 3:02 to stem the Golden Bears’ win streak and close the gap to 34-12, but a win at 165 sealed the dual for Waynedale.

West Holmes got three straight wins at 175, 190 and 215 from Lincoln Goans (16-0 tech fall at 4:16), Cam McCluggage (2-0 decision) and Easton Ross (8-0 major decision). Waynedale closed out the dual with a fall win at heavyweight.

Prior to the varsity matchup between the Knights and Golden Bears, five junior varsity bouts were contested with West Holmes winning all five matches to shut out Waynedale 23-0.

Calvin Pendlebury (132) scored a dominating 19-1 tech fall at 5:12, Logan Leyda (157) scored a fall win at :49, Finn McClintock (175) held on for a 13-9 decision, Kaden Markley (190) won with a fall at 1:40 and Grady Hawkins (heavyweight) scratched out a 2-1 decision win.

West Holmes opened the dual meet portion of its schedule with a come-from-behind 43-33 victory over Garaway Friday, Dec. 12 in an in-school dual at Garaway High School.

“I was really proud of our leaders today,” Vaughn said. “Peyton (Martin), Gabe (Umstead), Cam (McCluggage), Easton (Ross) and Dylan (Sours) really stepped up for us. Four of those five earned bonus point wins that really set up the dual win.”

The Knights jumped out to a 24-6 lead, winning four of the first five bouts. Garver (113 pounds) and Liam Angle (120) picked up forfeit wins for WHHS while seniors Martin (126) and Umstead (132) scored fall victories at 1:33 and 2:52, respectively, to give the Knights the early lead.

Garaway came back to knot the score at 24-24 after the 150-pound matchup, but the Knights regained the lead with a forfeit win at 157 by Leyda. Garaway came back with a fall win and a decision win to take the lead at 33-30 before the Knights got a fall win from McCluggage (190), a major decision victory by Ross (215) and a decision win for heavyweight Sours to close out the win.

Coach Vaughn was most impressed with McCluggage, who earned the Knight of the Week for a huge win over a state-ranked wrestler (Dillon King). "Not only a win, a pin (at 5:57),” he said.

Middle school

West Holmes moved its season dual mark to 2-0 after a 51-33 victory over Waynedale to open up the Backyard Brawl Tuesday, Dec. 16 at Waynedale High School.

The dual was evenly split between forfeit wins and contested matches. The Knights won five of the contested matches to Waynedale’s three and received four forfeit wins to Waynedale’s three, with both teams forfeiting at 150 pounds.

“I’m very happy with the effort we put in,” Knights coach Justin Wilcox said. “We won five bouts, and a couple of matches I think could’ve gone our way but didn’t. I liked that we were always attacking, being aggressive and getting greedy for points.”

Scoring contested match wins for the Knights were Jackson Vaughn (98) with a fall win at 4:06, Weston Rogers (110) with a come-from-behind 9-6 decision, Clint Burgett (128) with a fall at :50, Gavin Hoover (134) with a fall at 1:07 and Kolston Wagers (205) by injury default.

Receiving forfeit wins were Jake Lennington (142), Hudson Ross (160), Weston Scott (172) and Bryson Snyder (heavyweight).

With two champions and seven other wrestlers placing in the top six, West Holmes earned a third-place finish Saturday, Dec. 13 at the Panthers Junior High Winter Classic Tournament at Licking Valley High School.

“I thought we wrestled an amazing day, especially for it being our first tournament of the year,” Wilcox said. “On top of showing improvement in our technique, I was really impressed with our toughness and the grit we showed throughout the tournament.”

Pocketing individual titles were Vaughn (seventh grade, 98) and Snyder (eighth, 245). Vaughn (4-0, two falls) powered past Zayne Esteph (eighth, Northridge) by a 13-3 major decision win while Snyder (3-0, three falls) flattened Joey Connors (seventh, Sheridan) in 1:15.

Earning third-place finishes were Rowand Mathie (eighth, 104, 3-1, three falls), Rorick Taggart (eighth, 110, 3-1), Lennington (eighth, 142, 3-1, one) and Wagers (seventh, 205, 3-1, three), who competed as an extra wrestler.

Carter Kick (eighth, 122, 4-1, two) and Jett Justice (eighth, 172, 3-1, three) both nabbed fifth-place finishes while Hoover (eighth, 134, 4-2, two) took sixth place.

West Holmes opened its season Friday, Dec. 12 with a 52-42 win over Garaway during an in-school dual at Garaway High School.

Scoring contested match wins for the Knights were Logan Johnson (110) by fall at :52, Kick (122) by fall, Burgett (128) by fall at 1:07, Hoover (134) by fall at 1:46 and Lennington (142) by an 11-2 major decision. Picking up forfeit wins were Vaughn (98), Mathie (104), Ross (160) and Justice (172).