THE FINAL WORD: THOUGHTS ON THE WAVERLY-ATHENS WRESTLING MATCHES ... AND MUCH MORE (2022-12-09)
The atmosphere for the Athens-Waverly wrestling matches Thursday was reminiscent of the “old days” when the gym doors at Waverly were closed when the gym was packed, and the overflow crowd was funneled into the auditorium to watch on close-circuit television.
The crowd wasn’t quite that big last night, but it was the biggest crowd I’ve seen in Waverly for a wrestling match in a very long time.
And the crowd was electric, especially for the historic girls match. It’s exciting to see that type of support for the fledgling sport. I hope it continues, and the sport thrives.
The boys match was a good one, and it had several interesting storylines woven into it.
Former Athens wrestlers — junior Josh Courtney and 8th-grader Matthias Welles — both picked up wins for the Wolverines against their former team.
Josh Courtney’s brother Jake, wrestling for Athens, picked up a win over previously-unbeaten Connor Stotler in one of the more eagerly-anticipated match-ups of the night.
There were also a couple moments of redemption.
Waverly senior Ty Beeman pinned Athens sophomore Caleb Nason, who won last year’s match-up by fall.
Likewise, Athens junior heavyweight Josh Nittinger turned the tables on Waverly sophomore Kam Hills with a second-period fall. Hills won by pin last year.
The match came down to the last weight class, with Waverly senior Mason Ham, who was 0-2 on the season, and 14-34 in his career, and Athens freshman Sean Peters, who was wrestling his second varsity match, squaring off.
Peters controlled the majority of the match, but needed a pin for the Wildcats, trailing 36-31, to win.
Ham fought off his back early in the second period, and trailed 13-5, when he reversed Peters to his back for a fall to seal the Wolverine win.
And what’s interesting is that many of last night’s match-ups could be repeated Saturday at Athens’ Jarvis Tournament.
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Waverly senior Jerrell Sackett is back at it — breaking records and qualifying for States.
Sackett broke the Dryden pool record in the 50 free Thursday, and hit the state standard, which means he’s headed back to States to try and improve upon last year’s bronze medal effort in the event.
Sackett and fellow seniors Oscar Williams and Ryan Clark constitute three-quarters of last year’s relay foursome that established new school records, and qualified for States in all three relays — winning a silver medal in the 200 free relay, and a ninth-place medal in the 400 free relay.
Junior Liam Wright has stepped in as the fourth member of the relay, and the early results are encouraging. The foursome swam the fastest time in New York State to this point — 1:31.61 — in the 200-yard free relay Thursday at Dryden, but it’s still nearly three seconds off the time of last year’s time at States.
There’s a long season ahead of us, and plenty of time to shave time off those two freestyle relays. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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Senior Shantilly Decker was a solid No. 3 bowler for the Waverly girls last season.
This season, she’s led the Lady Wolverines all three times out, and has rolled a pair of 600 series.
Waverly is 12-0 in the early-going, and senior Victoria Houseknecht, and junior Rachel Houseknecht really haven’t found their groove yet. Once they do, watch out.
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The Tioga boys tip off their season tonight against longtime IAC rival S-VE, but will be short-handed due to illness that has ripped through the team.
I’ve read a great deal about how bad the flu season has been nationally, and that jibes with what I’m hearing from coaches. Nearly every coach I’ve spoken with has said sickness has impacted his / her team severely in the preseason.
As for the Tioga boys, once they get their basketball legs under them, they could be pretty good.
They are long and athletic, and should be able to score and rebound. Their success could be determined by how well they defend.
