 Plymouth 215-pounder Justin Deurloo, right, tries to throw Mishawaka’s Christian Lentz at the Plymouth Classic Dual Wrestling Invitational Saturday at Plymouth High School. Pilot photo/ James Costello By James Costello Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH — Plymouth came up short against conference foe Northridge as well as powerhouse Riley and defending state champion Mishawaka to finish 2-3 at the Plymouth Classic Dual Wrestling Invitational Saturday at Plymouth.
Riley finished runner up at 4-1 at the invite, while Northridge finished in third at 3-2, Plymouth was fourth, Lafayette Harrison was fifth in 1-4, and Bremen finished the day at 0-5. As expected, the Cavemen dominated with a total of just six individual losses on the day.
“I really thought Thursday that I don’t know how good we really are,” said Mishawka head coach Darrick Snyder. “We were just lethargic, sloppy, really rusty, and I guess I was being unrealistic since it was our first meet of the year... But today right off the bat we came out and we wrestled extremely well.”
Plymouth came up just short of a Northern Lakes Conference win in a 38-32 loss to Northridge as Blake Gaines filled in for usual 215-pounder Justin Deurloo and lost by pinfall in the first round.
“We know being here I don’t know how many years, and you bring in the returning state champions, and Riley has a ton of hours,” said Plymouth head coach Bob Read. “We’ve got Harrison. They’re a big school; they’ve got some kids. We knew that coming in.
“We knew we could make a run for (Northridge), but we were a little short at 215, and that was the difference in the match. We could just as easily be 2-0 instead of 0-2 in the conference.”
Plymouth had one undefeated wrestler Saturday as junior Chase Lewandowski went 5-0 in the 135-pound class.
“It feels awesome,” said Lewandowski. “I’m glad to go undefeated today. It had a lot to do with my coaches.”
Bremen was forced to forfeit two weight classes in each of its matches at 103 and 152, and the young Lions struggled with inexperience at the meet as the team was unable to record a win for the day. Although head coach Chris Prendergast said he was happy with the effort of his underclassmen, he acknowledged they still have a lot to learn.
“We’re so young,” he said. “Last week we went into Elkhart Central, and I started doing our stats — we put nine kids on the mat for the first time in their high school career, whether they were freshmen or we just found them in the school to fill a spot. Nine out of our 13 kids had never wrestled a high school match before.”
• PLYMOUTH CLASSIC DUAL WRESTLING INVITATIONAL
At Plymouth
TEAM RESULTS: Mishawaka 5-0, South Bend Riley 4-1, Northridge 3-2, Plymouth 2-3, Lafayette Harrison 1-4, Bremen 0-5
PLYMOUTH INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
103: Austyn Lee 0-2; 112: Forfeit; 119: Nolan Ludwig 1-3; 125: Chuck Holmquest 3-2; 130: Caleb Kelly 2-1; 135: Chase Lewandowski 5-0; 140: James Letsinger 3-2; 145: Chris Erickson 2-3; 152: Sam Tomasik 2-2; 160: Ryan Evans 1-4; 171: Scott Barry 1-4; 189: Danny Stephenson 1-2, Brock Vermillion 0-2; 215: Justin Deurloo 2-1, Blake Gaines 0-1; 275: Brandon Boswell 2-0, Damon Howe 1-2
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