LIMA - Half of the six Paulding wrestlers that participated at the Lima Senior Spartan Invitational placed on Saturday.
Dawson
Lamb led the way with a third-place finish while Jeremiah Smith came in
sixth and Jesse Shaffer seventh. As a team, the Panthers scored 47
points to end up 15th out of 20 teams.
“Our team placement does
not do our wrestlers justice with the amount of hard work and great
matches that they wrestled,” Paulding head coach Brian Porter said. “We
lost a few matches due to little mistakes, a few matches due to lack of
experience and a match or two just from not having confidence in
ourselves. But overall we’re making good progress to becoming better and
more proficient wrestlers.”
Lamb, competing in the 157-pound
class, went 3-1 with three pins over Shaun Murphy of Edgerton (3:09),
David Wermuth of St. Mary’s (0:51) and Jason Dues of Spencerville (1:22)
in the opening round of action, with his only defeat coming against
Jake Hurst of Mechanicsburg, the eventual champion. The Paulding junior
pinned Kaedn Settlemire of Liberty-Benton in 3:20 in the third-place
match.
“Dawson had a great day with a rough semifinals match
against a returning state-placer,” Porter said. “This loss was a good
test for him to see his progression. His only other loss this season was
to another state-placer and this time we started to hold our own.
“Dawson
is making adjustments and finding his proper wrestling style to score
in big matches,” Porter added. “Once he finds that right footing, I
think Dawson can end up having a great season this year.”
Smith
won two of three matches to start off the invite, losing to Kade Wireman
of Allen East before decking Sir Horrison of Lima Senior (4:11) and
Zayden Martin of Ashland Crestview (6:14). The Paulding senior then won
on a 7-3 decision over Brayden Stover of Mechanicsburg before dropping
his final match at 144 pounds to Isaac Torsell of St. Mary’s to place
sixth.
“Jeremiah had a rough first draw but battled his way back
to a placing match,” Porter noted. “He’s getting to be a tough kid.
Jeremiah is just finding the weight class to fit his style and I think
he’ll start winning some big matches. We know we have a few things to
work on but he’s starting to look good.”
Shaffer had forfeit wins
over Dajuan Hood of Rogers and Noah Goens of Shawnee sandwiched around a
fall over Raymond Barlow of Edgerton (1:31) before being pinned by
Matthew Balderma of Fostoria. Shaffer was then defeated by Levi Grace of
Crestview to finish seventh.
“Jesse looked like a different
wrestler this week,” Porter said of the 138-pound sophomore. “He came
out ready to wrestle and had a determination and grit we haven’t seen
before. He lost to a couple good kids but looked way more comfortable in
his wins today.”
Sheridan Matty went 1-2 for the Panthers at 132, with the win being a pin over Bryce Williams of Lima CC in 1:03.
Cayden
Breier at 175 and Marciano Murdock at 214 each lost their three matches
for the Panthers at the Lima Senior Invite, which was won by St. Mary’s
with 294.5 points. Mechanicsburg was second with 252 followed by
Liberty-Benton at 200. Allen East 191, Coldwater 140.5 and Spencerville
137 rounded out the top teams at the invitational.
“Overall, all
of our wrestlers worked hard today and I think we can become a tougher
team then we are now,” concluded Porter, whose squad is back in action
this coming Saturday at the Crestview Duals.