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DeKALB – David Stewart said he needs to work through getting gassed in his matches, and was hoping Friday’s match against rival Sycamore would get him that experience.
But when the DeKalb senior had a chance for a pin in his 195-pound match in a close battle between the teams at the time, he went for it and got it, helping the Barbs pull away for a 51-27 win.
“I felt like I had to get the pin for my team because it was kind of close, but at the end we kind of just [pulled away],” Stewart said. “If it wasn’t like that I probably would have let him up because it was a quick takedown. What I need to practice is getting tired and working through my tiredness.”
The Barbs were up 33-21 with four matches left, but Stewart and Lamar Bradley at 220 picked up pins to put the match out of reach, and the last two matches ended up going as forfeits.
Stewart, like a lot of Barb wrestlers this year, is older but didn’t get a shot at varsity behind a talented group of wrestlers that graduated last year.
“These guys were JV, but they were behind really good guys, and they were training really hard,” DeKalb coach Sam Hiatt said. “A lot of people are underestimating us because we have a lot of first-year varsity kids. But they’ve been training hard, and they’re ready.”
Hiatt said Stewart has been getting more and more confident as the year has gone on. He went 4-1 at a major tournament in Iowa last week and is 10-1 on the season.
He got an early takedown against Gable Carrick at 195 and ended up with the first-period pin.
“I’ve been practicing to get better and better, being heavy, getting them tired,” Stewart said. “It’s worse for them if I’m snapping. They get tired quickly. I get tired, but it’s not as bad for me as it is for them.”
Hiatt said he was pleased with the way his seniors performed as Austin Martin and Nate Sauer also picked up pins for the Barbs. Jalen Airhart and Lamar Bradley also got pins for the Barbs, while Hudson Aikens won 7-0.
“It’s always a fun meet, fun atmosphere,” Hiatt said. “We try to keep the kids focused, but no matter what you tell them ... the kids always get more excited and everything. It’s a fun meet every year.”
For Sycamore, Tyler Lockhart and Zack Crawford won by falls. Gus Cambier picked up a 6-2 win. And Ethan Bode won a thriller at 170 against Elvis Mora.
The two wrestlers kept going back and forth, with Mora getting a takedown to start things in the first, then trading three reverses in about 30 seconds. Mora started the second period on the bottom and again got a reverse, but again Bode answered back.
This time, however, Bode, a freshman, was able to make a move and get a pin for the Spartans.
“It was back and forth there,” Sycamore coach Randy Culton said. “Bode knew he was in a position, he knew the guy was flat. So we told him just stay there. That was a good match.”
Culton said he likes the way the Spartans (4-5) are progressing this year as football players try to get back into wrestling shape while the team battles sickness and injury. He also said he likes the future of the program that was on display Friday, with the Spartan middle schoolers topping the Barbs.
“We’ve just got to limit their mistakes,” Culton said. “That’s pretty much it and keep pushing through this. In the grand scheme of things this meet really doesn’t mean anything except a loss or a win on the record.”