After sending the short-handed Reeltown Rebels back to the friendly confines of Tallapoosa County, it was time for Elmore County and Stanhope Elmore to step inside the wrestling circle on Thursday night. At the end of the night though, the Mustangs notched the 44-36 victory.
“I’m pleased with the effort and the physicality with which we wrestled (Thursday),” Mustang coach Hunter Adams said. “We lost a couple of matches tonight that I didn’t think we should, but those were first-year wrestlers and they are still learning. As the year goes on, they are going to win those matches.”
Two matches stood out — the first was a points battle between Elmore County’s J.W. Clement and Stanhope’s Gabe Taunton at 170 and the second was a heavyweight affair between Elmore County’s Colby Mann and Stanhope’s Davion Brown. Taunton won 6-2 at 182 and Mann pinned Brown in the first period.
“They beat us 48-36 a week ago, but I thought the matches were much tougher (Thursday) even though they pretty much finished the same way,” Panthers coach Jared Jones said. “Some of the things we worked on — like not getting pinned at the end of the period — some of those things we saw (Thursday) and worked out. A couple didn’t and we still got pinned right there at the end of the match, so that’s frustrating.”
In the head-to-head matches, Stanhope Elmore jumped out to a 20-point lead with a string of first-period pins: Jared Cherry (120), Taunton (138), Adrian Laskey (152) and Jeremiah Cherry (160).
Connor Russo picked up a technical fall victory. He used a takedown in the early part of the third round to secure the 16-1 win at 145 pounds for the Mustangs.
At 170, Clement and Taunton wrestled a grueling and physical match that was short on scrambles but big on work ethic. Down a point in the third period, Clement struggled to turn Taunton as time ticked down, allowing the Mustangs to pick up the 3-2 victory.
Fast-forward to the heavyweight battle where both guys were stalemated at the end of the first period. In the second, Mann scored on an escape then used a low single-leg takedown to put Brown on his back for the pin.
