Panthers fall short

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LEWISTOWN - The sport of wrestling is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as you go along. Once in a while you get perfect pitch, and other times it sounds like nails on a blackboard.

First-year coach Kirby Martin and his Lewistown wrestling squad hit some of those sweet notes in their home opener Tuesday evening, but not enough to overcome Philipsburg-Osceola, as the Mounties came away with a 37-26 victory.

The Panthers, who fell to 2-4 on the season, won the bouts they were supposed to, but came up short in the toss-up matches to Philipsburg (1-0), and that was the difference in this hard-fought, entertaining contest.

"Philipsburg wrestled really well. Their whole lineup wrestled hard and they deserve a lot of credit," said Martin. "On our side, we lacked heart. We did not wrestle like we can. We just lacked heart in some matches and that was the difference tonight. Our guys didn't dig deep enough and find the will power to pull through."

Lewistown opened up a 6-0 lead when Colton Spade, fresh off notching his 100th career victory at the Ephrata Duals, made quick work of Wayne Davis at 160 pounds. Spade (7-0) scored off a double leg and turned Davis over with an arm bar, tight-waste tilt for the fall in 59 seconds.

The Mounties made it 7-6 with victories in the next two weights.

Jared Fleck defeated Panther Zach Peachey 3-2 in the tiebreaker at 171, and Steve Rusnak collected seven points in the final period to pull out an 11-3 major decision over Cole Welham at 189.

Lewistown regained the advantage at 9-7 when Tyson Searer notched takedowns in each period for the 8-2 victory over Andrew Mann at 215. Searer upped his record to a perfect 6-0 on the season.

Philipsburg went on a three-bout win streak to open up a 22-9 advantage. Colton Wrye pinned Mitch Ritter in 3:20 at 285; Chris Rocco won by forfeit at 103, and Tommy Miller defeated Lucas Besch at 112 by a 6-2 score.

"We lack some experience as far as number of years wrestling, but there are no excuses," Martin said. "You can overcome them with better conditioning and time in the mat room."

The Panthers cut the deficit to 22-19 when Kevin Bair scored nine points in the third period for the 13-5 major over Joey Bainey at 119, and at 125 Cody Hower decked Cody Buchanon with a half nelson in 3:55.

Bair found himself down 4-2 after one period of action. The freshman chose down to start the second and scored a reversal to even things up after two. In the final frame, Bair reversed Bainey to his back for a four-point move and an 8-4 lead. A Bainey escape made it 8-5 with one minute left in regulation.

Bair (3-1) put the match out of reach with a takedown, two-point nearfall and a stall point to set the final score at 13-5.

Nick Gurol, a state qualifier last season for the Mounties, stayed unbeaten at 6-0 with a 1:25 pin over Dustin Yeater at 130 that made it 28-19 with four bouts left.

At 135, Lewistown's Jake Schultz remained perfect at 6-0 with a 13-3 major decision over Kenny Myers. The Panther junior collected three takedowns, five nearfall points, and two escapes.

The Panthers got to within two at 28-26 when Dion Holland (4-0) won a hard-fought 4-3 decision over Jared Smith at 140. Holland scored two takedowns in the first period and fought off Smith and a bloody nose the rest of the way.

Philipsburg ended any hopes of a Lewistown comeback victory when Logan Walstrom defeated Cole Smith by a 13-8 count at 145, and Lucas Greenawalt pinned Ray Brune in 3:19 at 152 pounds.

"The big difference in the match was they won the toss-up bouts. We won where we should have won, but we could have used a little more effort on those toss-up bouts," said Martin. "In the positions we need to score, we aren't inflicting our will on them. You have to finish your moves and we didn't. It's a work in progress."

The Mounties own a 22-9 edge in the all-time series.

Lewistown won the takedown battle 15-9. The Panthers host Mount Union Dec. 23.