SOLON — “It was rewarding to wrestle well on youth night where we welcomed and introduced the 60+ K-8 solon girls who participate in our Solon girls wrestling club to the crowd,” said Lady Spartans head coach Jake Munson.
And wrestle well they did sweeping a double dual meet Tuesday, Nov. 19 at home against Center Point-Urbana and Independence.
Solon 48 CPU 30
Olivia Bonnema (155 lbs.) pinned CPU’s Makenna Brissey in 2:09 in a dual that saw a double forfeit at 100 lbs. and seven wins by forfeit for Solon (McKenna Rogers (110), Tess Richards (115), Jadlyn Huynh (120), Harlow Meade (125), Alannah Mahoney (130), and Makayla Keller (135).
The Stormin’ Pointers picked up wins at 140 (Taylor Hoskins pinned Solon’s Alexis Anderson in 4:18), 145 (Tara Crowley pinned Solon’s Lucianna Miller), and 190 (Jenna Small pinned Solon’s Adlie Miller in 2:35). CPU won two forfeits at 170 and 235.
Solon 39 Independence 36
Six match wins, one forfeit (Haiden Wolfe, 235 lbs.), and one double forfeit (190 lbs.) led to a dual meet win over the Independence (Indee) Mustangs.
“We wrestled well as a team and knew it would be necessary to beat a very tough Independence lineup,” said Munson. “We bumped several of our girls up a weight class to cover an open weight class and those girls responded well and helped secure the dual victory.”
Solon’s Kara VeDepo (110 lbs.) pinned Sophia Hurley in 4:37, Rogers (115) pinned Sarah Greiner in 1:32, Mahoney (130) pinned Jordin Derr in 5:26), Keller won a 6-2 decision over Kennedi Bevans, Miller (145) pinned CeCe Priebe in 5:58, and Bonnema (155) pinned Alex Westphal in 37 seconds.
Indee’s Natalie Nichols pinned Layla Knazze (105) in 5:49, Morgan Krall pinned Tess Richards (120) in 2:36, Claire Carey pinned Huynh (125) in 1:49, Kenleigh Trumblee pinned Alexis Anderson (140) in 3:58, and Ellie Fangman pinned Adlie Miller (190) in 21 seconds.
“We still have areas where we need to improve as a team, but it was a great start to our season earning two WaMaC dual victories,” said Munson. “We also had two girls that missed the entire last season due to injury (Layla Knazze 105 and Adlie Miller 190) and it was really rewarding to see both of them back in competition again.”
Time spent practicing had paid early dividends, he said. “We’ve been pushing the pace in the practice room this season more than in past seasons as 16 out of our 19 wrestlers came into the season with some wrestling experience. I’ve been pleased with how the girls have responded to the increased intensity and it made the difference on Tuesday night as we won a lot of matches in the third period.”
Knowing the admiring eyes of their young fans were upon them was a motivating factor for opening night success, the coach said. “We talked as a team before the dual meet that we wanted to wrestle for them and let those younger Solon girls see what our high school program is about.”