By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Lebanon, Mo. — Lebanon students majored in intimidation today after the entire student body of over 1,400 was released from class early to watch their Yellowjackets wrestle Nixa.
A unique environment for a regular-season wrestling dual, the atmosphere paid off. Lebanon set the tone with four wins by pin, going up 23-0 through the 132-pound weight class and winning 48-21.
“[This atmosphere] is awesome,” Lebanon wrestling coach Randy Roark said of the assembly. “It’s a neat experience. Puts a lot of pressure on [our wrestlers]. When you lose in front of 1,400 of your classmates, there’s a lot of pressure. I like it to kind of get them ready for the state tournament.”
CLICK HERE FOR NIXA VS. LEBANON PHOTOS
Lebanon didn’t do much losing Thursday, taking 10 of the first 11 matches in front of a vocal student section before dropping the last three.
“You’ve got a group (of students) over here that gets loud, and that’s why we put the varsity mat by them,” Roark said. “To give [our wrestlers] a little more fight. It’s exciting to come out here and win in front of everybody. Most of the people here at the school have never seen a wrestling match.”
The Yellowjackets made some history Thursday, setting a new program mark for individual wins in a season.
“It’s great,” Roark said. “We’re a young team. Got a lot of freshmen and sophomores in the lineup, so I don’t know how long that record will stand.
“They’re hard workers. We’ve got a young group that works their butt off. They’re going to be a good group in a couple years, especially.”
Cole Roork in the 120, Caleb Shields in the 126, Braxton Lewis in the 152 and Dakota Shockley in the 170 won by pin for Lebanon.
Nixa won the final three matches, with Donovan Benetti winning by pin in the 195 and Ozzie Garcia in the 285.
Lebanon’s Maxwell Shelton won in the 182 over Skylar Barber, 9-4, in what was one of the more physical matches of the afternoon.
“[Shelton] hung in there,” Roark said. “[Barber] was a wild man. Busted him a couple times. Had an illegal slam once. And [Shelton] just fought through it.”
Roark also praised Reagan Mowery, who took the 145 over Charles Hawkins, 8-0, scoring all eight in the second period.
“That was a tough kid he had,” Roark said. “We didn’t match up real well with them. Where our best were were where they were weaker. It was kind of one-sided either way.”
The day’s best visual came when Shockley pinned Davis in the 170. A Lebanon student yelled to Shockley to “look up.” Shockley did, smirking at the crowd before completing the pin. (Video footage of Shockley in the highlights above and on Thursday night’s newscasts).
Other wins for Lebanon: Hunter Lewis over Hunter Christenson in the 106, Hogan Fisher over Brayden Middleton in the 113, Trevor Christian over Chandler McAfee in the 132, Brock Reeves over OPEN in the 160.
Other wins for Nixa: Jonathan Gherins over Noah Simmonds in the 220, Jordan Eli over Cade Schmitz by pin in the 138.
