The matmen from Carroll got up early Saturday morning and made the short trip to Clinton Central to finish their conference segment of the season leaving only next Saturday’s sectional at Lafayette Jeff. Tri Central rode the favorite mode and walked away with high team score of 254 points, winning 7 out of the 14 weight classes. The Cougars made the finals to finish 2nd in the conference with 181.5 points. Freshman Tallis Bowers (125) was the lone medalist for CHS with a pin with just a tick left in round 2.

Clinton Central had a trio of state ranked seniors who ended perfect for the day, helping the Bulldogs to a third place finish with 160.5 points, followed by Lafayette Central Catholic, Clinton Prairie and Rossville.

The highlight of the first round was a surprising pin by Dalton Marvin (215), scoring his first victory at this weight division. Kameron Casto (171) and Anthony Pickett (130) won easy first round pins. The first round was full of byes and forfeits as the seeding process was in effect.

The second round was full of action and success and disappointment. CHS Dakota Underwood (103) took on a tough TC Dakota Anderson who had beat him last week. The fast and aggressive Underwood trailed with 35 seconds left in the 3rd round by a score of 3-8. He pulled out all the stops and scored a reversal and near fall to tie the match at 8-8. It looked like a sure overtime match but the official awarded a reversal to the TC wrestler for a 2-point win with no time on the clock.

The Cougars won the next four matches to send Trey Overholser (112), Bowers (125), Pickett (130) and Nick Gamel (135) to the finals. Jake Wilkinson (145) lost to Drew Miller, Rossville’s state ranked contestant who improved to 29-1.

The most controversial match of the day pitted CHS’s Montana Gangwer (152) against the 27-3 Codey Byrd from Tri Central. Gangwer scored take downs with many spectators calling for the visual pins but the official was out of position and did not respond. With 35 seconds to go, Gangwer was not awarded points for a reversal and near fall as the official ruled the move was not controlled. The end result was a 5-9 loss for Gangwer.

Jared Collins (160), Brandon Weber (285, and Kameron Casto (171) joined the four smaller teammates in the finals with pins in their matches, boosting seven representatives in the finals for the first time ever in CHS wrestling conference history.

In the third round losers’ brackets, Kanaan Pruitt (119) and Cole Liggett (140) worked hard but could not make it into the consolation matches. The fourth round saw Underwood (103) win by points to place 3rd. Wilkinson and Gangwer represented CHS on the podium with pin victories for 3rd place medals. Tyler Powell (189) lost to finish 4th. Marvin seized the moment and won on a last second penalty point for an illegal head butt by his CP foe by a score of 7- 6 to finish 3rd.

The finals round saw Bowers win with an impressive pin. Overholser, Pickett, and Gamel all found the mats being controlled by their rivals from Tri Central. Collins found the grasp of Clinton Central’s Jake Evans, who ended the day 30-1, too tough. Weber was pinned by Lafayette Catholic’s Mark Strong, who out horsed the Cougar who was seeded first.

Creating the most buzz for the Cougars in the finals, except for the win by Bowers, was the match between Casto and Lafayette Catholic’s Devin Morgan. This match was full of action with an 8-8 tie going into the last second of the match. The official declared a stalemate with 8 seconds to go. Morgan made an aggressive move with 2 seconds left to be awarded 2 points on a reversal that sealed the win against Casto.

The Cougars will compete this week in the sectional.

Vs. Rossville

Carroll wrestling team raised its record to 20-10 on Senior Night last week.

Jared Collins (160) celebrated with a victory over his Rossville foe Taylor Rice, improving his regular season record to 25-5. Brandon Weber (285) improved his record to 20-10 with a quick take down and pin in the first 75 seconds of his match.

The Cougars won the match 66-11 with Rossville having only four team members wrestling.