DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
A tilt late in the first period by freshman Kale Beer may have seemed inconsequential at the time after the AC 113 scored his first career takedown by finishing a nice single leg against fellow Starfire freshman Daniel Rupp, but the four-point lead was all Beer needed to clinch victory for the Jets in their tough season opener on the first night of the ACAC Duals. South Adams came back to win the final two bouts by fall, but it was not enough, as they fell 42-36 to the #2 team in 1A.
The Starfires had to overcome the absence of senior Colton Summersett, who did not wrestle in the match, creating a big hole in the middle of coach Robert Loshe’s lineup.
Local wrestling fans got their first look at the new Adams Central lineup and they had to leave impressed with Brason Schortgen, the highly-touted freshman at 132 for coach Currie. Schortgen chased Braxton Kirchner across the mat and lead 11-0 before scoring a key fall in the final minute to give the Jets a much better chance of scoring a victory in the rival match.
After Mav Dubach had little trouble dispatching Blake Hoffman, who was subbed into the lineup in Bollenbacher’s absence, at 138, it looked like South Adams was going to score a win at 144 with Wyatt Mann, who came up from 138 to plug the lineup hole. He led 5-2 after a half nelson, but Joey Everett stormed back and nearly stuck Mann in the second period. Mann got a reversal, though, in the third and went on to score the fall for South Adams.
The two teams split the next two bouts, with Max Byerly winning by decision at 150 and Isaiah Meyer scoring six points with a fall in the second period at 157.
Then came another great bout at 165 between SA freshman Wes Summersett and Adams Central’s Matt Heiser. Heiser led 5-2 after one period, but Summersett was better on his feet and closed the gap with two takedowns in the second. Heiser chose bottom to start the third with an 8-7 lead, but a quick side cradle by Summersett led to a fall just 20 seconds into the final period and the Stars led 18-15.
Dakota Perry scored the opening takedown at 175 for AC, but Luke Bauman deferred his choice in the second and Perry chose bottom and after just 20 seconds, Bauman found a wing and ran with it, turning Perry over and scoring a fall, putting SA up nine team points.
That turned the dual meet over to the portion of the weights where Adams Central was heavily favored and they easily took quick falls at 190, 215 and heavyweight, with Zac Wurm, the newest Indiana State football recruit, not even having to face an opponent.
Myles Kaehr scored a key win over Titus Loshe at 106 with a first-period fall, setting up Beer to score the key victory at 113.
South Adams’ Dakota Sprunger and Will Patterson had no troubles in scoring consolation pins to bring the team score back to its final six-point margin.