Sickles wrestlers dominate Wharton 57-18

There was a time when the Wharton wrestling team had no issues handling Sickles.

Three years to be exact.

That streak ended Tuesday night as the Gryphons collected a 57-18 dual meet victory at home against Wharton.

“It’s just a testament to the kids working hard,” Sickles coach Terry Brockland said. “We’ve got a group of kids that love to wrestle, they’re hooked on it and they’re trying to out-wrestle each other in the (wrestling) room.”

That effort has showed as Tuesday night’s win was the fifth consecutive team victory for the Gryphons (5-1).

Sickles was given a head start early on as Wharton forfeited the first four matches of the night, although the Wildcats won the first official bout with a 40-second Gabriel Nold pin of Sickles’ Gage Cardinale.

Sickles answered, winning six of the final 10 bouts, including pins by Nick Adams, Anthony DiPaolo, Austin Bailey and Taylor Lugo.

The final two matches of the night were a success for the Wildcats – a 7-2 decision by Tim Blickle and a pin by Malik Awad – but Wharton coach David Mitchell wanted to see more from his group.

“We just have to get the intensity up,” Mitchell said. “I’m very hard to please. I don’t care, win or lose; I think we didn’t wrestle well at all. We didn’t show conditioning, we didn’t show good skill, we didn’t show good technique.”

SICKLES 57, WHARTON 18

106 – Adams (S) p. Rodriguez (W) 5:48; 113 – DiPaolo (S) p. Hinds (W) 1:23; 120 – Antle (W) p. Yee (S) 1:29; 126 – Agosto (S) by forfeit; 132 – Terrazas (W) dec. Brown (S)11-6; 138 – Bailey (S) p. Lybarger (W) 3:10

145 – Lugo (S) p. Downer (W) 5:25; 152 – Woods (S) dec. Maggert (W) 4-2; 160 – Blickle (W) dec. Martinez (S) 7-2; 170 – Awad (W) p. Estevez (S) 1:52; 182 – Grosvenor (S) by forfeit; 195 – Rivera (S) by forfeit; 220 – Lowe (S) by forfeit; 285 – Nold (W) p. Cardinale (S) :40.