New London wrestling team wins at WACO duals

It was a night of close match-ups on the wrestling mat Thursday, Jan. 5, at WACO as the Warriors would host both New London and Lone Tree in dual action.

WACO and Lone Tree would face either other first on the mats where it was an easy victory for WACO with numerous open classes securing the 57-6 victory.

Only Robert Frazer and Jalen Collins had competition from the Lions. Frazer fought the entire six minutes and walked away with a 7-5 decision over Zack Madoerin. Collins didn?t win his match against Levi Tripses as he was pinned in 1:18.

All others for WACO won their weight class by forfeit: Adrian Unternahrer (160), Michael Arbogast (170), Tim Ackles (182), Kade McKinney (220), Cody Crawford (285), Scott Christofferson (113), Jaden Williams (120), Joey Collier (145) and Hunter Donaldson (152).

The outcome for WACO would be different after facing a tough New London team as they ended their match-up 24-49.

The first to see action were McKinney and Jaxon Allen in the 220 weight class. As the match went on, both would have numerous takedowns and near pins and would keep their score even through all six minutes of regulation, pleasing the crowd.

It would take an additional period to determine the winner as Allen would come out victorious with a 12-10 win. Unternahrer (170) lost by a 12-4 decision to Gavin Holmes.

The rest of the matches ended in pins with Crawford (285) pinning New London?s Austin Van Amerongen in 49 seconds. Williams (126) lost by fall to Kohlton Hank in 3:31. Frazer (132) was pinned in 38 seconds by Javis Krieger. Collier (145) lost in 2:20 by pin to Julian Wikoff. Donaldson (152) lost in 3:04 to Reno Chiri and Cameron Raines (160) lost by fall to Michael Arbogast.

The only two from WACO to win by forfeit were Ackles (182) and Christofferson (113). Receiving wins from New London by forfeit were Owen Reed (195), Samuel Loyd (120) and Tyler Stevenson (138).

WACO coach Seth Pugh said that New London is a tough team. ?I like wrestling them because they have guys who will test you. They are solid on top.

?You will see a lot of cradles and they keep the pressure on you. That?s what we need. It makes our guys wrestling and scrambling on the bottom; keeping their heads up and trying to come up and get hand control.?

The match between McKinney and Allen in the 220 weight class was Pugh?s favorite of the night. ?That?s something you really like to see. At the end of the match, I was talking with the guys telling them that?s the identity we need. If we are in good enough shape and push these guys to the limit, that?s what we?re working for.?

Since this was the first meet after the holiday break, Pugh says it went well. ?It looked like the guys put in the work over the break, it really paid off for them.

?We came back strong and I?m looking forward to Saturday. For those that had action tonight, I can?t wait to see how this prepared them.?

For those who didn?t wrestle, they were working on staying ready. ?They were trying to stay loose by jump roping and not sitting the entire time. They will be ready.

?We have some things to work on today and get ourselves ready for tomorrow.

After that it will be taking each match one at a time next week. ?We have a dual Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next week,? Pugh says.

?We won?t have a lot of practice times, so it will be a lot of technical stuff and drilling. It will be fun for those guys to see some different opponents next week.?