By Stephen Smoot
In its second year of competition, the Pendleton County varsity wrestling squad has taken solid steps forward as it battles in a tough conference full of some of the state’s best.
Last Friday, the Potomac Valley Conference held its championships at a time rescheduled due to the oncoming winter storm. Athletes competed in the gymnasium as the high school continued its day of classes, providing an unusual daytime environment for competition.
Wrestling differs from almost any other sport, outside of boxing, in that each competitor, regardless of points up or down, can win or lose dramatically at any time. Some wrestlers take an aggressive tack and try to grind down their opponents’ will to compete. They use their physical strength to create discomfort, pressure, and, yes, sometimes pain, to win their own small war of attrition against a determined opponent.
Some wrestlers take an opposing tack. They allow their opponents to pursue an advantage, parrying every move, waiting for the slightest of openings to make a move, take advantage, and win the match.
As wrestlers compete, they can earn points for different moves executed on the mat. They start from standing positions to open the match, but also start from a position of advantage or disadvantage at certain points.
In most team sports, accumulate enough points and at some point the end becomes a foregone conclusion. Up four touchdowns with two minutes to play, or 30 points in basketball at the same point, players can loosen up and enjoy coasting to the win.
There’s no such thing as just coasting to a win up big on points in wrestling.
At one point, Pendleton County’s Tanner Hedrick took on a rival from East Hardy, one of the top wrestling squads in West Virginia Class A. Both competitors, big, strong, carrying determined looks on their countenance, slapped hands and opened the match.
They came together on their feet, each feeling the other out, circling like evenly matched predators battling over the right to prey. After the first few seconds, they grappled, each trying to fell the other.
Referees score the match by marking takedowns (two points), escapes (one point), reversals, (two points), and near-falls (two or three points.) A 15-point advantage will result in a technical fall and the end of the match. Or one wrestler can “pin” the other by pressing both shoulders into contact with the mat. No matter what the score, the pin wins, just like a knockout in boxing.
East Hardy’s representative took Hedrick to the mat, but Hedrick quickly shifted, rolled, and gained the advantage over the Cougar. Then the first two-minute period closed.
A match, unless it ends early, is composed of three periods of two minutes. To open the next period, competitors get into the “referee position” where one is on the mat and the other in a position of advantage.
Hedrick found himself in that position to open the second period. The Cougar escaped and earned points, took Hedrick to the mat, but once again the Wildcat used his strength and agility to shift out of the move and put himself on top again.
With complete focus and ferocity, the two grappled. The East Hardy wrestler at a certain point saw a window of opportunity and pushed through it. He caught Hedrick in a slightly awkward position, turned him, and within seconds got the pin. A match where Hedrick appeared ahead in points and seemed to be building momentum ended quickly and decisively in the other direction.
Both young men then got to their feet. They slapped hands, then hugged briefly; two modern gladiators paying each other deep respect on center stage in the Keyser High School gym showing all what sportsmanship and respect look like.
When competition closed, the Wildcat warriors received their results. Again, this is a second year program with a number of student-athletes bringing very limited experience against opposition that has been wrestling, many of them, since they came out of diapers.
Caden Minor earned fourth place in the 120-pound weight class, Connor Hartman fifth in 150, David Noble fifth in 175, Tanner Hedrick fifth in 285, Broty Sites sixth in 138, Cain Nulph sixth in 144, Ronnie Thompson sixth in 190, and Garrett Hartman sixth in 215.
Tanner Hedrick challenges an opponent from East Hardy during the Potomac Valley Conference championships Friday in Keyser.
