Eureka Outlasts Lafayette in Close Match

Lafayette High School's wrestling team traveled to Eureka High School on Wednesday night in an early season contest between two of the area's stronger programs. Individual and team points were hard to come by in a matchup that went to Eureka, 33-30.

Prior to the match's beginning, Eureka Head Coach Tim Yancey correctly anticipated the importance of the competition at the 189-pound weight class.

"Matt McClimens (Eureka) and Taylor McKenna (Lafayette) are both strong and quick and it should be a critical matchup between two very well-balanced wrestlers," predicted Yancey.

In fact, the match proved the highlight of the evening as McClimens prevailed 4-1 after three overtime periods. It was an important competition since the teams were tied going into the match, and the victory put Eureka up 12-9. It was a lead they would not relinquish.

Lafayette Head Coach Scott Sissom explained that in such a tightly-matched contest any early season rust could make the difference.

"In an even duel like this, where each side is strong in five or six weight classes, the victory will go to the team that can avoid giving up big points in pair-ups where they are not as strong," explained Sissom.

The evening started off with Lafayette scoring a solid win by senior Kyle Black over Eureka senior Spencer Kendall in the 145-pound weight class. Black, who took sixth place in the state championships last season, converted a takedown into a cradle and then a pin for a first-period victory to put the Lancers up 6-0. Lafayette then went up 9-0 on Daniel Clutter's minor decision over Shane Glascott in the 152-pound weight class.

Eureka sophomore Luke Gentry put the Wildcats on the board with a minor decision in the 160-pound weight class over the Lancers' Jake Robinson to make it 9-3. The contest between Gentry and Robinson was tight and foreshadowed several close contests to come that ultimately went to Eureka. Junior Luke McClimens pinned Lafayette's Chris Orange in the 171-pound weight class to tie the match ahead of the epic struggle between Luke's brother, Matt, and Taylor McKenna.

Gentry commented on the close matchups that swung the way of the Wildcats.

"All summer we worked on conditioning with the coaching staff and the effort paid off tonight as we were prepared to get good positions late in matches and turn those efforts into wins."

After Matt McClimens' victory at 189 pounds, Eureka was up 12-9. The Wildcats built on that lead with a win by Tyler Casey over Lafayette's Chris Stainback. The Lancers fought back to make the score 15-12 following a minor decision win by Will Burgess in the heavyweight class.

The Wildcats then posted three consecutive pin victories to go up 33-12. The first of the three wins came for Luke Seiler, who quickly pinned Lafayette's Grant Hinton (at 103 pounds). This was followed by a headlock pin of Lancer Jason Federer by Eureka's Jordan Jinkerson (112-pound weight class) and a single-arm bar pin of Lafayette's Demetrius Dorsey by Levi Littmann of Eureka (at 119 pounds).

The lead looked convincing as the 125-pound weight class contest got under way between Wildcat Ben Schroeder and Lafayette's Danny Wrocklage. The Lancers desperately needed points at this stage and Wrocklage delivered with several takedowns that produced a major decision win and made it 33-16 in favor of Eureka.

The 130-pound weight class featured Eureka's Justin Slattery against Lafayette's Ryan Jones and was possibly the most lopsided pairing of the night as Jones pinned Slattery 27 seconds into the first period. This set the stage for a victory by minor decision from Ryan Siebert over Eureka's Dean Sindel in the 135-pound weight class and brought the score to 33-25.

Coach Yancey singled out Sindel's performance in losing as a key to the team's win as Sindel was able to avoid giving up big points in his loss and thus prevented the Lancers from putting themselves in a position to win.

"Dean Sindel had a great effort and despite losing he probably did as much to help us win tonight as anyone," commented coach Yancey.

Despite not being in a position for his team to win as his match against Eureka's Zach Teahan began, Lafayette's Nick Olejnick turned in a gutsy performance in the 140-pound weight class contest. Olejnick scored a minor decision win as the match ended with Eureka ahead by three points.

Coach Sissom reflected, "It's a long season and I believe this loss against a Eureka team that wrestled very well will serve as the motivation for us to work harder and improve."

For his part, Yancey indicated that the win was a great team effort.

"Our kids came out and wrestled well and we not only won the matchups we needed to win but in the close contests we did not give up big points."