UW Parkside hosted UW Whitewater in an exciting showdown last night as the teams battled for the Sake bottle. The Parkside Rangers came out victorious over the Whitewater Warhawks by a score of 24-9. This dual had excitement from beginning to end despite what the team score might say.
The dual kicked things off at 149 where we saw #8 Burford take on Spuhler. Spuhler looked tough and had good attacks, earning himself an early takedown and a 2-1 lead. However, after that Burford showed his composure and it was all his scores from there on out. Final score of the match was 6-2 Burford and 3-0 Warhawks.
The Rangers would then go on to win 157 and 165, as Durocher won by decision 8-3 and #1 Gantz won at 165 by Major 19-8. The Warhawks swung back though, winning the next two matches at 174 and the marquee match of the night at 184. Riser won for the Warhawks in a really close match at 174 by a 5-4 decision. Then #1 Shinhoster looked every bit like a National Champ at 184 as he took out returning All American and #3 Reece Worachek by decision 7-2. Shinhoster got an early takedown and was able to put on a solid ride with multiple big mat returns through the first period as he racked up over 2 minutes of riding time. A couple more takedowns for Shinhoster and one reversal for Worachek we found our way to that 7-2 decision.
Going into the break the Whitewater Warhawks had won 3 of the first 5 matches and were up 9-7 on the Parkside Rangers. However coach Becker must have given his guys some of that same “special stuff” (water) Bugs Bunny gave the loony toons because they came out of the break on fire. Winning every match from there on out. At 197 Swanson got it done in OT 4-2. That match seemed to be all over the place, not knowing what each guy was going to do next. Lloyd Reynolds continued to keep it rolling after his Pointer Open tournament championship last weekend, getting the job done again last night. He controlled the match and pushed the Warhawk all over the mat, earning himself a decision 2-1.
At 125 Becker pulled Shane Corrigan’s redshirt and that sure seemed like the right decision. Corrigan put his best suit on and came to work. Earning himself a 17-0 TF midway through the second period. At 133 Roti tried to outdo Corrigan by scoring 9 points in the first period. However, Roti seemed to run out of gas as he only scored one more point the rest of the match and came away with a 10-5 decision.
In our final match of the evening, the star himself Cayden Henschel capped things off with a solid 3-2 decision. Hensehel was able to secure himself a takedown in this match which proved to be the difference. He looked solid positionally as the Warhawk struggled to get to his legs. This made the final team score 24-9. Parkside won 7 of the 10 matches.
Looking back on this dual, I was very impressed with Coach Zwaschka and the Warhawks. Coach Z always has his guys ready to scrap and last night was no different. I know the final score was not what they wanted, but almost every match was very close and one score or one flurry could have swung it the other way. The Warhawks battled all 10 matches, but it simply was not their night. They are going to be a tough team again this year and will have more bright spots to come. For now they sit at 1-1 as a team until they get back to dual action Dec. 1st against UW Platteville.
The Parkside Rangers and Coach Becker kept things rolling after an impressive Pointer Open the weekend prior. It was a solid team win for the Rangers and they can use that to build off of as they head into the Findlay Open and the future dual as they host Northern State on Dec. 2nd. It was a nice early season for the Rangers but the competition is only going to get tougher moving forward. I wouldn’t be worried though, these guys love to fight.
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