Triton Wrestling: Trojans Respond With A Split
BOURBON – Triton showed both ends of the gamut Wednesday night in its double dual against Churubusco and Manchester. The Trojans showed signs of being overwhelming, and also bits of vulnerability in a 48-33 loss to Busco and a 42-39 win against Manchester.
Triton was really up against it in the Busco dual. Five pins and a forfeit had the Trojans down 36-6 to the Eagles, only a pin from Vince Helton at 1:06 of his 182-pound match the stick in the spokes. But the turn from the heavier weights to the lightweights flipped on a switch for Triton. Beginning with Conner Pitney at 106, a 27-point swing begun with Pitney’s pin at 3:25. Only a trio of escapes would be allowed by Triton in its next four clashes, and that came in a 12-3 major decision in favor of Nathan Riggins at 113.
Bryce Swihart, Malachi Greene and Marcus Brown then went tech fall, pin, pin in succession, the two pins both coming in the first minute. At 36-33, the Trench began buzzing again, but Busco still had three points in hand, and would seal the deal with two quick pins in the final two bouts to close out the scoring.
The tussle with Manchester started a little less auspiciously, but the Squires did take two quick pins at 160 and 171. Helton again ended the damage at 182, collecting four takedowns before finishing off a pin of Ashton Moore at 2:57. Cameron Scarberry then picked up a pin in just 58 seconds against Andrew Cagle.
Manchester took its last lead of the night with a 9-6 decision in favor of Bryce Kampbus over Billy Smith at heavyweight that proceeded a forfeit at 220 from Triton.
The Trojan lightweights then went to work again, with Pitney leading a charge of five straight pins for the home side. A third-period pin of Michael Winsing was followed by Riggins’ second-period slap of Tyce Rooney. Swihart, Greene and Brown then needed just 75 seconds to all pin Brandon Wagoner, Reece Adamiec and Jackson Mathias.
Manchester made the score a lot closer with three pins to close the night, collected by Brayden Fortner, Collin Meggison and Wade France.
“Seeing Bryce Swihart, Malachi Greene and Marcus Brown all come out here on senior night and dominate the way they did set the tone for us,” said Triton coach Ron Brown. “It shows when you have good practice partners in the room, it just makes each other better. Shows that they are all feeding off each other. Coach Arvesen (Matt) has done a good job with them getting them prepared for duals like this, and we are aiming for the conference and sectional tournaments in the next couple of weeks.”
The opening dual of the night saw just as much streakiness. Manchester won the first four duals with Busco via pin fall, then Busco returned the favor with five straight pins. A Manchester decision, followed by each team swapping a pin had Busco up three, but the Eagles closed out with two pins in identical fashion to how it closed out Triton to top the Squires 48-33.
“Time to develop some of the kid’s skills from the younger ones we had out here, they just need more experience,” Brown said. “Things will turn around dramatically in the future. We had a couple kids out tonight, and if we really needed to pull out a couple more wins, we could have done things differently. But getting some of the younger guys some quality mat time can only help, especially with what we have ahead of us.”
Triton, following a 3-2 showing at a very tough New Prairie Super Duals last weekend plus Wednesday night’s double, sits at 14-8 on the dual season. A visit to another quality-laden Garrett Invite this Saturday is the final straw before the second season begins with the Hoosier North Athletic Conference on Jan. 21 at the Trench. The Plymouth Sectional on Jan. 28 then becomes the next giant red circle on the calendar.
“Going up to Garrett this weekend, we’ll see some good teams like Carmel, East Noble and West Noble,” Brown said. “I just expect to see some good, hard battles. We wanted to see some elite competition before the conference tournament, and the Garrett Invite should provide that. I think it’s really important to get used to a bracket-style format rather than getting comfortable in a team format, because you can count on teammates to give you a power surge and pick up slack. In a bracket, you are pretty much alone on an island and have to perform on your own.”