With the entire student body in attendance, the Carthage wrestling team opened the season with a 51-19 win against visiting Carl Junction in an assembly dual on Tuesday afternoon.
The stands were full inside the main gymnasium at the high school when the varsity match started just after 2:30 p.m.
“That was everybody in the school,” Carthage head coach Kenny Brown said. “We did it last year at CJ and it was our turn. I loved the fact that one, it got a little louder than normal and two, we got some kids to watch a wrestling match who probably never had before and maybe they’ll come out again.”
The Tigers put on a good show, winning five-straight bouts to start the day, with four falls and a forfeit.
Junior Tanner Russow opened at 120 pounds and pinned Carl Junction’s Lucas Watkins in just 47 seconds. Junior Selvin Estrada followed at 126 and pinned Ethan Walker in 5:21. At 132, senior Dalen Moore (129-17 in his career) won by fall in 3:04 against Carl Junction’s Holden Hughes. Freshman Eli Sneed won by forfeit at 138 pounds, and junior Anderson Ixcol then pinned Corbin Fogelsong in 2:39 at 145 pounds.
That gave Carthage a 30-0 advantage.
“Honestly a lot of that we just got lucky with where we started with the random draw,” Brown said. “Just happened to be some of our more experienced wrestlers. Tanner Russow got the ball rolling and it just kept going. Dalen beat one of their better wrestlers who I believe was a state medalist in the past as well. Getting a fall against him was big momentum. Momentum plays a huge part in duals and that’s what a lot of people don’t really understand. Kids tend to feed off the success of their teammates.”
The momentum didn’t last though; Carl Junction outscored Carthage 19-3 over the five bouts from 152 to 195 pounds to pull within 33-19 on the scoreboard.
Sophomore Creed Lambeth lost by fall in 4:47 at 152 pounds against Carl Junction’s Cole Stewart. At 160, junior Kelten Campbell nearly pinned Carl Junction’s Isiac Shields in the first 30 seconds but was forced to forfeit due to injury just a minute in.
Junior Brandon Crow scored three points with a 4-3 win at 170 pounds over Kobe Maxwell, but junior Caleb Triplett lost a 17-3 major decision at 182 pounds to Wyatt Ross and freshman Kanen Vogt lost 8-6 at 195 against Noah Southern.
“We dropped a few in a row,” Brown said. “Kelten Campbell had the kid on his back and popped cartilage in between his ribs. That one hurt. That was a match I was hoping we could finish, and we had another wrestler out. We had a sub in at 52 and more power to him for being willing to step in to help the team. He’s actually a 45 pounder but he had to wrestle 52 today to help us out.”
Junior Kale Schrader stopped the bleeding with an overtime win at 220 pounds, 3-1 over Jesse Cassatt. After that, the Tigers cruised. Junior Brener Ocana won 3-1 at 285 pounds against Tyler Hoffman, freshman Braxdon Tate pinned Ashton Guilford in 1:54 at 106 pounds and sophomore Carlos Reyes finished up the day by pinning Gage Gordon in 33 seconds at 113 pounds.
“That’s part of who Kale is,” Brown said. “He’s come right out of football and obviously he is not quite in wrestling shape yet but he still came out and beat a kid who made the bubble round at state last year.”
Carthage will be back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 4 when the Tigers host Columbus and Miami in a double dual.
