Miguel Lujan pins Andale opponent to secure win for Crusaders. Lowe wins key 4-3 decision in above picture.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — A strategic game of cat and mouse, a visit to the National Federation High School wrestling book, and some key moments on the wrestling mat itself, might have given the Wellington wrestling team its first Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League Div. IV title.

Wellington would beat Andale 40-39 in which the two teams ended up tied 39-all at the end of the session. The tiebreaker came down to the sixth entry of the tiebreaking rule in the NFHSW rulebook. The team “that had accumulated the greatest number of falls, defaults, forfeits and disqualifications shall be declared the winner.” Wellington had seven pins and forfeits. Andale had five. Thus, the Crusaders won the dual.

The Crusader grapplers would then oust Clearwater in the nightcap 49-28 for the AV-CTL DIV sweep. Earlier this month, Wellington had beaten Mulvane 39-37. With three victories in tow, Wellington has Circle left to pick up the league crown. Collegiate does not have a wrestling program.

It was quite a couple of victories for Wellington, who had three of their starters out of the lineup. Jason “Peanut” Norris and Graysen DeJarnett were out with concussions, while Colton Glover was also out of the lineup with an unspecified injury.

Andale was also open in three weight classes at 138, 145 and 152.

Jason Norris (2nd left) and Graysen DeJarnett (2nd right), both Wellington seniors, were injured Thursday.

The key to the victory occurred off the mat. DeJarnett’s concussion injury will keep him off the mat until at least next week. But Andale did not know it. McComb put him in the lineup to take the forfeit at 160 for which Andale was open. That garnered Wellington six points, using a wrestler, who was never meant to wrestle. And that right there ultimately led the Dukes to victory over the Indians.

It was as close of dual as you will ever see. Andale was leading 39-30 with 220 and 285 left to wrestle. Wellington’s Jace Lowe was on the mat and wrestling Darrell Cooley at 220, who opened with a takedown. Lowe then used two escapes to tie the match. That led to the third period with the match, dual and league title on the line.

Lowe gave up an escape, but then responded with a takedown with 30 seconds left to wrestle. He would ride out the rest of the match for a hard-earned 4-3 victory.

That made it 39-33 in team points with Miguel Lujan needing to pin Tate May to force a tie. He did just that at 1:04 in the first period, making it 39-all.

The fate of the league title then came down to the scorer’s table. According to the handbook, the first three criteria to breaking a team dual tie is unsportsmanlike penalties. There were none. The fourth one dealt with number of matches won. Both Wellington and Andale had seven. Thus it came down to pins and defaults.

Both teams had four pins, but Wellington had just one forfeit to Andale’s three. Thus the Crusaders won.

It was that way throughout the dual. Both teams traded pins in the lightweight divisions. Both Daniel Schmidt at 120 and Kadin Heacock at 126 got pins early. By the time the teams got to 170, it was 30-24 Wellington.

Austin Schoemann in the third period picked up a key reversal and allowed no points to help give Wellington the win.

Aaron Schoemann played a part in the victory by losing only 14-2 to Davon Spexarth. One may ask how a 14-2 loss may help. Well, Schoemann was down 14-0 going into the third period, and was dangerously close to losing by technical fall which would have meant Wellington would lose five points.

Instead, Schoemann scored a reverse in the early part of the period and never relinquished a point thereafter. Thus, Wellington lost by a major decision which ended up being four points for Andale instead of five. And that cost the Indians the victory.

Ian Groom would lose by technical fall and everyone avoided Andale’s Anthony Capul at 195, who is in another stratosphere of wrestling.

With the victory in hand, Wellington would dominate Clearwater in the final act of the night. Wellington scored four consecutive pins. Schmidt at 120, Heacock at 126, Wolf at 132, and Olson at 138 would pin their opponents in the first period and give the Dukes a 24-10 lead.

After a Clearwater pin, Shane Hughes and Lyric Gonsalve staged an epic three period bout in which Hughes would eventually eke out a 16-13 victory.

Clearwater would narrow the lead to five, 27-22, but Schoemann would pin his opponent to up Wellington’s lead once again to double digits.

Groom would get a pin, Lowe would major decision his opponent 14-3 and Lujan ended the triumphant night with another pin.

Wellington wrestles in the Andover Tournament Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.

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