Eagles Edge Ste. Genevieve, North County
The early season success of Sullivan’s wrestling team carried over Tuesday in the team’s home tri-meet against North County and Ste. Genevieve.
Sullivan edged Ste. Genevieve, one of the state’s strongest programs, 34-33, and turned around to defeat North County 40-36.
Eagles head coach Matt Peregoy was thrilled with his team’s performance.
“Ste. Gen has been the district champion for something like 14 of the last 16 years,” he said. “They are a very good program with decades of history behind them. We beat them straight up for the first time in our program’s history.”
Sullivan won with four open weight classes, which Peregoy knew would be a challenge.
“Everyone had to rise to the occasion to fill their individual goals,” he said.
The Eagles made a last-second decision to pull Luke Landwehr up from the junior varsity to fill in at 195 pounds and not concede the points.
It turned out to be the night’s most pivotal decision. Sullivan was up four points when Landwehr’s turn came up against Ty Brown.
“Luke’s job at this point was to do everything he could to win, but if he couldn’t win, to do everything he could to keep it as close as possible,” Peregoy said.
Landwehr didn’t win, but he went the distance and lost by a 5-1 decision and kept the loss to just three points.
“We won the dual because Luke Landwehr understood his role and did everything he could to help his team,” Peregoy said. “In my eyes, Luke was the hero of the evening for our team even in the face of his individual loss. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the team aspect of our sport. Tuesday night, Luke did not forget his team.”
Overall, six wrestlers won matches in both duals.
At 106 pounds, Dillon Witt won a 12-0 major decision against North County’s Cody White and a 7-0 decision against Ste. Genevieve’s Gavin Gross.
Kobie Blankenship won twice at 152 pounds, pinning North County’s Austin Declue in 1:14 and picking up a 9-0 major decision against Ste. Genevieve’s Noah Ogden.
Peregoy said his win against Ogden “was probably the best I have seen Kobie wrestle all season.”
Ian Kilburn competed at 160 pounds and pinned North County’s Anthony Wilson at 3:26 and Ste. Genevieve’s Andrew Wolk at 2:41.
Isaac Peregoy had a pair of wins by fall at 170 pounds. He pinned North County’s Dalton Gullett at 1:26 and Ste. Genevieve’s Josh Schmidt at 4:34.
Evan Shetley remained unbeaten by winning via forfeit against Ste. Genevieve and pinning North County’s Jase Odle in 55 seconds.
Shetley wrestled at 182 pounds.
Tristan Brown (285) pinned North County’s Jaxon Nash in 22 seconds Ste. Genevieve’s Clayton Vaughn with a 7-6 decision.
Brown led off the Ste. Genevieve dual and Peregoy said it was huge in getting Sullivan momentum.
Ty Shetley pinned Ste. Genevieve’s Lucas Smith in 5:08 at 126 pounds.
He lost a 9-8 decision to North County’s Jonathon Coroama.
“As a freshman, Ty is proving himself on the varsity mat and making gains with every match he wrestles,” Peregoy said.
Luke Landwehr competed at 195 pounds and pinned North County’s Austin Carver in 5:37. He lost a 5-1 decision to Ste. Genevieve’s Ty Brown.
Jonathan Krygiel lost by fall to Ste. Genevieve’s Maggie Myracle at 138 pounds and he lost by decision against North County’s Chris Singleton.
At 145 pounds, Ethan Krygiel was pinned by North County’s Kyle Cresswell and Ste. Genevieve’s Grant Staffen.
Sullivan was open at 113, 120 and 132 pounds.
Exhibition
Ethan Hines (138) won a 12-4 major decision against Ste. Genevieve’s David Boyer.
Tommy Hollenbeck (152) pinned Ste. Gen’s Ethan Ogden.
Timothy Ryan (285) was pinned by Ste. Genevieve’s Ryan Schmelzle. Joseph Lewis was pinned by Nathan Selby. Ste. Genevieve’s Ethan Sander pinned Donovan Counts.
Up Next
Sullivan will travel to Fayatteville, Ark., on Friday and Saturday for the Battle for the Belt tournament.
“Our biggest will be (Battle for the Belt),” Peregoy said. “This tournament is huge with high level competitors. At last count there was in the neighborhood of 65 state qualifiers from four states. Adding this kind of competition out of state is huge for our program and our postseason preparation.”