Northmor’s Ethan Amens earned a pin against Elgin Wednesday afternoon. The Golden Knights won the in-school match by a 42-32 margin.
Rob Hamilton | Morrow County Sentinel
The Northmor wrestling team claimed a win over Elgin in a rare mid-day in-school dual meet Wednesday.
“I’ve heard rumors about how exciting it is and how students get involved and I said I’ve never been involved in something like this, so I thought it was worth a shot,” said Golden Knight head coach Scott Carr. “I wanted to get a good team over here that would fill the line-up and make it competitive, so it’s not pin after pin after pin and Elgin brought it today. We knew they were going to be good. It was awesome. These little kids who don’t know anything about wrestling are yelling and screaming and it was a pretty cool atmosphere.”
Carr liked how the meet was played in front of students from all of Northmor’s schools, noting that it added a lot of excitement to the contest.
“Usually when we have a home match, it’s 6 p.m. and we get a handful of students and it’s kind of ho-hum, but when you do it during the day like this and make it a big deal, it definitely increases the intensity,” he said.
As for the meet, a 42-32 win by Northmor, the Golden Knights jumped out to a large lead and were able to hold on to top the Comets in a battle of two of the top KMAC wrestling programs.
After Carson Thomas received the only forfeit of the day at 106 pounds to give Northmor a 6-0 lead, the team won five straight matches on the mat. Cohan Hurst (113) and Cowin Becker (138) both won by first-period pin, while Ethan Amens (132) claimed a pin in the second period. At 120 pounds, Brady Carr jumped out to a huge lead over John Willis and held on for a 12-7 win. Right after that match, Collin Beck won a dramatic match at 126, fighting back from a 5-0 deficit to tie the score with five third-period points and then scoring a takedown in overtime.
After Elgin got on the board with a decision at 144 and pin at 150, Northmor got a quick pin by Carson Campbell at 157 to lead 36-9. While Elgin was able to win most of the upper weights, Northmor was able to get a first-period pin by Ashton Clark at 190 pounds to claim enough points to assure them of the win.
Northmor had gone up against Elgin as part of the previous Saturday’s tournament hosted by the Comets — which Elgin won, while Northmor was third. Carr noted that the differing formats of the two meets made a difference.
“Seeing them in a tournament format is a little different than head to head,” he said. “With an atmosphere like this, it kind of got our guys pumped up and they fed off the crowd and our student section and it was a success.”
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
