The last time Caesar Rodney won the Henlopen Conference Northern Division dual meet title head coach Trey Mitchell was a 132 pound senior in 2012. Coincidentally it was at 132 pounds where Alex Batton got the Riders rolling with a 8-3 decision over Cael Baker to start a string of four straight bouts won by the Riders.
The match began at 106 pounds where Connor Herrmann was inserted into the lineup and won an 18-3 technical fall over Nolan Wright. Ben Donato bumped up to 113 pounds for the Riders where he received a forfeit giving Caesar Rodney a 11-0 lead to start the dual.
Both teams began to maneuver and counter maneuver their lineups.
The Vikings bumped Blake Walker to 120 pounds where he recorded a pin over Ashton Graham in 3:14. Austin Guerrieri moved up to 126 winning a 15-4 major decision over Quade Cummings who was inserted into the lineup for Caesar Rodney as the Vikings closed the gap to 11-10.
“We started the match off with three guys that aren’t normally in the lineup for us and we came out of the first four matches up by a point, those guys went out and wrestled for the team and I couldn’t be prouder,” Caesar Rodney head coach Trey Mitchell said.
After Batton’s win at 132 J.J. Spence recorded a pin over Tripp Gannon in 3:16 at 138 pounds allowing the Riders to bump Trevor Copes up to 144 pounds where he recorded a 52 second pin over Colin Poulis, Miguel Sigaran scored a late takedown at 150 pounds to record an 11-2 major decision over Aiden Baum as the Riders took a 30-10 lead.
Cape Henlopen was able to stop the bleeding when Nick Walker won with a pin over Ethan Ferger in 3:24 at 157 pounds cutting the score to 30-16, but the Riders got back to back pins from Kenneth King over Carson Tuer in 1:26 at 165 pounds followed by Craig Dixon over Jacob Goodsell in :52 at 175 pounds securing the team dual 42-16 with three bouts left.
Arnold-Decyk got a pin for the Vikings at 190 pounds over Jeremiah Heath in 3:05 and Patrick Donahue pinned Dion Alston in 3:41 at 215 pounds.
Tristan Cooper closed out the match at 285 pounds pinning Wyatt Graviet in :07 seconds giving Caesar Rodney a 48-28 victory and a 7-0 record in the Henlopen North.
“I don’t know if we are the best team, but we are the hardest working,” Copes said.
By Benny Mitchell
