The Hillsboro Hawks keep the winning streak alive by knocking off Rolla and Herculaneum on Tuesday, January 5. These two wins put their undefeated streak at 21 duals.
Head Coach Matt Mitchell commented on the team’s performance, and said, “We wrestled well, but we need to continue to work on our pre-match mindset. We need to believe that we can beat anyone. On the other hand we can never underestimate anyone. Both Rolla and Herculaneum have solid wrestlers, and are always tough.”
In the first dual of the night, Hillsboro defeated Rolla 44-24. At the 138 lb. weight class, Raymund Barnett started it off with a technical fall by the score of 18-2.
At 145, Dalton Litzsinger had a tough match and was pinned. However, Mitchell knows he will learn from his mistake. “Litzsinger got caught in an awkward position almost immediately. Hats off to his opponent. Litzsinger will rebound from this like he always does, and if I know Dalton, he will be ready to go when we get back into the practice room,” said Mitchell.
Litzsinger humbly replied to his performance, and said, “I’ve just got to keep putting trust into the process and the things my coaches are doing for us. We have a lot of talent that we can put to use if we all work as hard as we can day in and day out.”
Griffin Ray, wrestling at 160, earned a 6-2 decision victory. “Ray had maybe the best match of the night. He was ready mentally and beat a quality opponent. I was happy with the way he wrestled. Griff is tough to beat when he is in the right mindset.”
Ray knows that he’s a marked man and is using that as motivation. He said, “I know everyone is coming to beat me and it’s fueling me. The team goes out and competes hard every night. It motivates me to see kids in the Boro give it all they’ve got for this town.”
Continuing on, at 195, Zach McNees won a major decision 18-7. After that, Hunter Rhodes pinned his opponent at 4:38. At 285, Jordan Jarvis won by pin at 3:37 and at 113, Aidan Black pinned his opponent at 1:53.
Gavin Alexander, at 120, wrestled to a 7-1 decision victory. Mitchell commented on his match, saying, “Alexander was up a weight class tonight and took care of business. He wrestled a tough opponent and was really able to take control of the match. He has been looking better and better each week.”
Aidan Haggard, at 126, won by technical decision shutting out his opponent 15-0. Mitchell was excited for Haggard, and said, “He had a great match. Haggard is really working hard right now, and we are happy with his progress so far. He did some really nice things tonight that we can build off of.”
Sam Richardson finished the Rolla dual, at 132, with a quick pin at 50 seconds.
Against Herculaneum, Hillsboro won 77-6. This dual did not take long as the Hawks pinned five opponents in a row quickly to start it off.
Richardson won again with another quick pin, this time at 53 seconds. Barnett also earned a pin in 2:16, while Litzsinger rebounded with a fast pin at 19 seconds. Eddie Hines scored a pin at 4:51, and Ray finished off his opponent with a pin at 1:45.
The only other contested weight class saw Haggard again shutting out his opponent 15-0 to earn another technical decision win.
The Hawks look to keep the winning streak alive as they play host to Ste. Genevieve in tonight’s dual, which will also be Senior Night.
