Highland wrestlers excel with Senior Night win over Carlyle, prep for MVC Meet

From start to the end, it was an evening of wrestling that went pretty close to plan for Highland wrestling coach Shorty Ohren and his Bulldogs grapplers.

Jordan Thole, Gage Pogue, and Tanner Schranz got the Bulldogs started early with wins and Highland rolled to a 60-18 dual match victory Monday, Jan. 27, on Senior Night at Highland High School.

“It was a decent night (for us) and we had some forfeits and stuff like that, but the kids that wrestled, wrestled pretty good,” Ohren said.

In the lower weights, Pogue and Schranz kickstarted the big night, winning their matches at 112 pounds and 120 pounds, respectively. Thole won his match by forfeit at 106 pounds.

At 152 pounds, Benny Mitchell continued his recent success with a victory.

“Benny pinned a kid at 152 tonight, won his match and he looked good,” Ohren said.

Trevor Bowman wrestled at 160 pounds and the freshman won his bout.

“It was first-year against a first-year and it was a pretty good match and he finally got the win out of it,” Ohren said.

Other winners included Luke Tweedy at 182 pounds and Kendall Hughes at 195. Both won by forfeit. Senior 185-pounder Trevor Zobrist also won courtesy of a forfeit. Senior Alex Reed got to wrestle the final match of the night and he made it worth the wait as he won by pin.

“We wanted to get Alex a match and we bumped him up from 195 to 220,” Ohren said. “He pinned his kid and it was Senior Night and he wanted to wrestle, so I gave him the shot.”

The Bulldogs will now turn their attention to preparation for the Mississippi Valley Conference duals meet, which will begin at a 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, at Civic Memorial High School in Bethalto.

“It’s going to be tough (for us),” Ohren said. “In the past, we have forfeited up to five matches, but right now we’re only forfeiting one weight class, so that’s a plus.”

The Bulldogs are only forfeiting the 126 pound weight class heading into Saturday, and Ohren said they may forfeit at 170 pounds as well.

“We’re going to talk with the kids about bumping around (the weight classes) and trying that,” Ohren said.

Highland will look to Schranz in the 120-pound class, Mitchell at 145 or 152 pounds, Reed at 195, Tweedy at 182 and Zobrist at 285 to gain potential all-conference honors this weekend.

“We have about four (or five) we hope can get all-conference,” Ohren said. “We’ll wrestle all week to see who’s in and where they are all going to go (in the lineup).”

This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 4:02 PM.