SM East 42, Leavenworth 25 Leavenworth wrestling defeated 42-25 by Shawnee Mission East in home duel
Leavenworth, Kan. — Before his team’s meet Wednesday night, Leavenworth wrestling head coach Jay Johnston pointed out the key to victory.
“Pins,” Johnston simply said. “It will come down to that.”
Three hours later, the Pioneer coach seemed prophetic when his squad lost to Shawnee Mission East 42-25. The visiting Lancers recorded four pins to Leavenworth’s two.
“Lots of inexperience out there for us, but overall the young kids did good for their first home dual meet,” Johnston said afterwards. “We only have two returners that have wrestled in a home dual meet, so this was a huge first night for a lot of our guys.”
After gaining an early 6-0 advantage from an 103-pound open victory, the Pioneers saw the Lancers win four straight matches.
During that span, Leavenworth’s Daniel Wilson lost 9-2 at 112 and Matthew Metzel fell 19-3 in 119-pound bout.
Jarred Belveal and Mark Davis each were pinned in their respective matches at 125 and 130.
Trailing by 14 heading into the 135-pound match, the Pioneers needed a spark — and they had one in Javon Haines. The senior wrestler went into overtime to record a 2-1 victory and at the same time rejuvenated the home team.
Jordan Bush followed that up with a 10-1 win at 140 and then Kelsey Mason capped off the comeback by pinning his 145-pound opponent.
“Kelsey has come a long ways from last year,” Johnston said. “He worked his butt off to get on varsity this summer and now he sits at 8-7 as a sophomore. He still has a long ways to go, but he is getting better.”
Unfortunately after Mason’s pin, the Lancers answered back with two of their own. Tilden Edwards at 152 and Josh Ammel at 160 each lost by pin falls, and an 171-pound open victory stretched Shawnee Mission East’s lead from one to 19.
After Jesse Colver lost his 189-pound match by three points, the Lancer lead became insurmountable.
That didn’t stop Nathan Butler from winning his 215-pound match by pin, a victory that pushed the sophomore’s record to 17-1 on the year.
Finally, Da’Quan Blake wrapped up the proceedings with a narrow 10-7 defeat at 285.
“We need to get a little more aggressive and that’s a sign of our youth,” Johnston said. “We also got to get their hands off our heads. It keeps happening and its hampering our attacking ability.”
With its first home dual meet in the books, there remains a lot of work to be done for the Leavenworth wrestling team. That work will start again this Saturday at Louisburg Invite.
“We are really young so we have a lot to learn,” Johnston said. “This will pay off down the line, especially next year, but right now we just have to keep working on getting better.”