MOUNT VERNON – Change is inevitable … especially during a pandemic.
The Mount Vernon and Highland wrestling teams did their yearly dual at Mount Vernon Middle School on Thursday, Jan. 7. And while it was a celebration of both the high school- and middle school programs, the thing missing was the youth matches.
“I can’t have a youth program this year because of COVID,” Highland coach Adam Gilmore said. “It sucks that we can’t have them in here as well (because) it’s always a fun night.”
The dual has been going for a few years and started because of the close proximity of the two schools.
“We’ve had a lot of kids go through the Killer Bee program; my own kids have gone through the Killer Bee program,” Gilmore said. “Some of their kids come over to our youth program. It’s two programs that are (15) miles apart trying to benefit off each other. That’s how you grow the sport.”
The lack of youth participation in this year’s event is only temporary.
“It’s good for the youth kids and the youth parents to be a part of this,” Mount Vernon coach Nate Cornell said. “It’s good for the young kids to see (the high schoolers) and say, ‘Hey, that’s going to be me someday!’ So that’s a lot of fun for everybody. I like for the youth kids and parents to see this excitement and keep this going and be a part of something special.”
Cornell inherited the event as a part of his schedule and loves the event.
“It’s funny because in my short stint at (Buckeye Valley) as a head coach and a couple years as an assistant, we also did a middle school-high school dual with Highland,” he said. “This isn’t anything new to me. I’ve known Adam for a long time — ever since I wrestled.
“Even when I was in college, Adam tried to recruit me to come be an assistant coach with him. I love Adam, I have a lot of respect for Adam. I look up to him as a young coach.”
The Yellow Jackets defeated the Scots 52-30 at the high school level and 67-15 at the middle school level.
The high school teams were originally going to wrestle at the new Energy Fieldhouse, but it was moved in an effort to rekindle some of the excitement of years past. It worked.
What fans saw was quick-fire action with the highlight coming in the 132-pound weight division. Mount Vernon’s Conner Lang was on his back about to be pinned by Highland’s Andrew Bellas when he reversed and got the pin.
Rylan Firebaugh (126 pounds), Gabe Shannon (132), Gabe Harmon (220) and Nate Stradley (285) all picked up wins for the Yellow Jackets. Firebaugh’s came by 10-1 major decision and the others were by pinfall.
The Scots got wins by Kaden Miller (145), Cody Matthews (152), Damien Daniel (160), Eli Grandstaff (170) and Chandler Stevens (182) — all by pinfall.
“(Mount Vernon has) a great program, so it’s awesome to be able to wrestle them,” Gilmore said. “I keep telling our kids to keep wrestling hard, keep competing, and that’s how you get better. So you come wrestle good competition. We’ll go back home tomorrow; we’ll work on mistakes and try to get better for the next competition.”
Dylan Hartman (106), Charlie Bell (113), Colton Spurgeon (120) and Jesse Foster (195) all won by forfeit for Mount Vernon to account for the final score.
