By By Aaron Carpenter, Staff Correspondent
The Washington wrestling team grappled with the Patriots of West Carteret Wednesday night trying to avenge a disheartening loss the Pam Pack suffered last year.
It was Senior Night for the Pam Pack and it honored its only senior, Bryant Gardner, before the match began to much applause from the assembled crowd.
Although the match was much closer than last years’, the Pack still fell 38-32, partly due to the forfeit of the 103 weight class at the end of the evening.
The Pam Pack started strong with a pin of D.J. Minoque by Daniel Garcia (112) in 59 seconds to take a 6-0 lead.
The Patriots’ Taka Watanabe followed that with a technical fall against Michael Williamitis (119).
Washington took a 12-5 lead with another pin by Gabe Gardner (125) over West Carteret’s Cody Taylor in 1:22.
A pin by the Patriots’ Ricky Smith in an astonishing 21 seconds over Maquita Moore (130) started a mini-run that saw West Carteret take and extend the lead over the next three matches.
The pin was followed by Sam Tomlinson earning a technical fall over the Pack’s Jimmy Hardison (135).
Nick Moore of the Patriots earned a major decision in the next bout over Michael Goldberg (140) to extend West Carteret’s lead to 20-12.
Gardner (145) was able to celebrate his Senior Night with a decision over Corey Wade. The match had to be stopped in the very early going as Wade developed a nosebleed that took some time to stop. In fact, the match was delayed two more times to mop up Wade’s face.
Gardner’s bout set off a nice run of wins for the Pam Pack.
Darien Peele (152) earned a decision over Alex Williams before Justin Moore (160) was able to pin the Patriots’ Kyle Taylor with only 44 seconds left in the third round.
Martelles Jones (171) followed Moore’s pin with one of his own a mere 30 seconds into the first round over Michael Schaffer to give Washington a 30-20 lead.
The next match was hard fought between the Pack’s Scott Baytala (189) and Ray Arroyo, but Arroyo came away with a pin in 2:47 to cut into Washington’s lead.
The Patriots’ took back the lead from the Pam Pack in the next bout with Derek Holloman pinning Gil Broadway (215) at 1:16.
In the heavyweight division, Marquin Hill of Washington battled a hard three rounds with Nick Lewis to earn a decision and the lead for the Pack, 33-32.
However, victory for Washington was not to be as the Pack could not field a participant in the 103 lb. class and had to forfeit the last match as noted above, losing 38-33.
Bryant Gardner finished his last regular season with a record of 27-11.
The Pack travel to New Bern Saturday for the conference championships.