Enid High wrestling had the full range of emotions over the past few days as they competed in the Edmond Memorial “Pre-Turkey Open” on November 24th and had their first dual tonight (December 2nd) against Blackwell.
Enid took 23 wrestlers to the open tournament. As a whole they did very well, with three of their wrestlers placing in the top 3, and 15(!) pins overall! Trinit Zweifel followed up his 2nd place finish last week, with a 1st place finish in the 145 pound bracket. He had two pins and a major decision before winning 3-1 in the championship match. “Trinit had some really good matches and wrestled well. He does a good job of staying in positions and staying sound with his wrestling. Trinit just keeps working and grinding it out and he’s going to be solid for us,” Enid High Head Coach Trent Holland said.
Carlos Alvarado, Enid’s 195 pounder, made it to the championship round, winning 3-1 in sudden victory overtime, and pinning his second-round opponent before losing the finals match in a heartbreaker 9-8, which was good for 2nd place. “Carlos is one of those guys that’s been successful for us too,” Holland said. “He did a good job for us at the tournament and we expect that to continue.”
Heavyweight was especially good for the Plainsmen as starter Seth Melvin continued his pinning ways with three pins on the way to a 3rd place finish after falling to the eventual champion. Junior Varsity backup Angel Sanchez, wrestling on the bottom side of the same bracket, pinned his first two opponents before being pinned himself in the championship match, which earned him a 2nd place finish.
138 pounder Steven Brooks barely lost his first match 2-1, and battled back hard in the consolation bracket, pinning four straight before losing to the eventual 3rd place finisher. “Steven is another guy that did well. He’s come in, put in the work training with Trinit and making improvements every day,” said Coach Holland. “To be more successful, we are going to have to continue to wrestle through every situation and be more three dimensional. We are going to have to go deeper into our arsenal of moves (we work on that in practice) and it’s moving along good.” All in all, a successful tournament.
Tonight’s dual, however, was a little more disappointing for the Plainsmen. The 3A power Blackwell Maroons came to town and made it really tough on the home team. Blackwell finished 2nd in Dual State and 3rd at the State Tournament last year, and judging by tonight’s matches, are just as good this year. The dual started with an exciting match at 106. Enid’s Hector Perez had a lead most of the match before finding himself in a difficult position and getting pinned in the 3rd period. Three forfeits by Enid (two sick starters and one injured), another pin and a major decision all going against Enid put them in a 34-0 hole when Trinit Zweifel took the mat.
Zweifel gave the crowd something to cheer for by pinning his opponent in the first period. “I came out, wrestled my match, got a takedown early then worked a chicken wing. I stacked him with the wing, then got the pin,” Zweifel said. “We’ve got to keep working hard, and the whole team is showing really good effort. We ran into some tough guys tonight and gave up some weights, but we have definitely shown improvement.”
152 pounder Leslie Fortner kept up the excitement by also pinning his opponent. After another Enid forfeit at 160, Brady Conder stepped to the mat, took care of business and pinned his opponent too, making it three pins in a row for the Plainsmen. Unfortunately, the scoring stopped there, as the last four Enid wrestlers all lost their matches. The final score was 55-18 in favor of the Maroons.
Coach Holland was positive after the match however. “We saw a lot of improvement from our guys from the open tournaments to what we saw tonight, even though the score on the board doesn’t show it. We had some guys out of the lineup, like Daigen Gibbons, who is injured, and Vinny Vandiver and Payton Zwiefel who were both sick at school today and couldn’t go. Was really happy with Brady Conder, who is the backup to Daigen. He got thrown out there, did well and scored some points for the team. We have some technical things to work on. Some guys are just getting in the room and getting the rust knocked off. We are tweaking some stuff and still getting into shape. These things are definitely fixable and if the kids bring the right attitude, we will improve and show up at the end of the year. I liked their fight. I liked the way they competed.”
Next up for Enid is a dual at Edmond Santa Fe on December 7th, followed by the Mid America Nationals Tournament at the Stride Center here in Enid on the 10th and 11th. “Santa Fe is a 6A school and definitely has some guys that can wrestle. We did well against them last year, but they got some young guys coming up,” said Coach Holland. “Mid America Nationals is a tough tournament and with pool wrestling on Friday and brackets on Saturday, you get a lot of wrestling in. It’s a time to really test the mental side and stamina because you are doing so many matches.”
Whether the Enid wrestlers are winning or losing, they are all competing hard and giving it their all. That’s a show you should check out!
