Waynesburg routs Trinity
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Jared Rice celebrates a win over Waynesburg’s Luke Robinson in the 195-pound weight class.
Waynesburg’s Spencer Lesinski throws Trinity’s Dom Quartureto the mat during a wrestling match last month.
It’s been a difficult seven days for Trinity High School’s wrestling team.
Last Wednesday, a water main break in the practice room destroyed thousands of dollars worth of wrestling mats and turned the Hillers into nomads when it came to finding practice space.
Last night at Hiller Hall, Waynesburg brought a torrential downpour of talent and came away with a 45-27 victory in a Section 4A match in Class AAA.
The second-ranked Raiders, sporting four sets of brothers in the lineup, pushed their record to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the section. Trinity, which benefited from two forfeits, fell to 1-1 overall and in the section.
The Hillers were able to use the practice facility at Washington & Jefferson College and rigged up a defacto practice room at the school.
“We were lucky enough to have W&J as neighbors,” said Trinity head coach Mark Powell. “(W&J coach) Tommy Prairie is a great guy. He let us in to practice. We have all our matches at home but we’re the travelling Vikings.”
Trinity athletic director Ricci Rich said insurance will cover the cost of the repairs.
“We disinfected the room,” said Rich. “We should be back in by Friday.”
Waynesburg was bolstered this season when West Virginia University head coach Sammy Henson decided to move his family from Morgantown to Waynesburg. Included in that group are Jackson Henson, a two-time West Virginia Class AAA champion, and Wyatt Henson, a feisty freshman with an extensive Junior Olympic background.
Both Hensons won – Jackson by technical fall at 145 and Wyatt by major decision over promising Trinity freshman Giani Martini – but the key bouts came at 220 and heavyweight.
At 220, Spencer Lesinski was trailing by six points when he turned and pinned Dom Quarture one second before the buzzer sounded to end the second period. That stretched Waynesburg’s lead to 32-9.
At heavyweight, Ryan Howard missed the calls from his coaches to choose neutral for the start of the third period and chose down. Howard made the move pay off when he was awarded a penalty point that snapped a 2-2 tie, then turned Will Edgar and pinned him in 5:42.
“Obviously, 220 and heavyweight were huge,” said Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton. “Those were tossups and we got falls in both. That was pretty much the match. We had two starters out of the lineup and we don’t have a lot of depth. I told this team that if they want to be good, then we need every single kid to come through and we did.”
Luca Augustine started the match at 138 by pinning Ken Ealy and starting the Raiders’ run of seven wins out of the first nine to mount a 38-9 lead.
“It comes down to execution,” said Powell. “That’s a good team we wrestled. We needed mid-30s to put us in the match. If we get the wins at 220 and heavyweight, then we’re there. You know what you’re going to get with Waynesburg. They are gritty and know how to win.”
A.D. Nelson (113) and Jared Rice (195) had pins for Trinity. Kyle Homet (170) had a pin for Waynesburg.