TENNERTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur wrestling Buccaneers went out in style in their regular-season finale at home in a quad with Bridgeport, Preston and Huntington Saturday afternoon.
On Senior Day, the Bucs went 2-1 in the quad defeating Preston by a 48-29 score and beating Bridgeport by a 54-18 score but dropping a 54-21 decision to Huntington
The Bucs went 2-1 despite having to forfeit four weight classes at 126, 144, 157, and 285.
“We gave up 24 points to start with due to holes in our lineup from either having an empty vacant weight class, or due to injuries, so battling out of those type of deficits are hard team-point wise.,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Jacob Orr. “We were able to do enough and match-up with Bridgeport and John Marshall and get wins against them. Huntington, having a full lineup, that was a really tall task to try to beat them in the team-points race but we still wrestled really well against them.”
Against Preston, the Bucs won six of the nine matches contested on the mat and won nine of the 10 matches battled on the mat against Bridgeport B-U won four matches on the mat against Huntington.
The Bucs’ two seniors Liam Garcia and Oscar Blonn were recognized on Senior Day and neither grappler disappointed.
Garcia (120/126 pounds) and Blonn (215 pounds) both went a perfect 3-0 on the day as both earned pins in all three of their matches.
“We don’t have a lot of seniors this year, but the two that we’ve got in Liam Garcia and Oscar Blonn, have both been four-year varsity letterman and four-year starters for the team,” remarked Orr. “Both have been a solid foundation to the program through their four years here. Their hard work and dedication towards their craft and the program is awesome.”
Jeremy Jett (106 pounds) also went a perfect 3-0 while Bri Howes (113 pounds) was a perfect 1-0.
Ian Cornett (113/120 pounds), Andrew McDowell (138 pounds), Kyzer Hernandez (150 pounds) and Chance Morgan (165 pounds) also posted winning marks with 2-1 records.
The Bucs will be back in action Saturday hosting the Big 10 Conference championships.
The championship meet will start at 10 a.m.
“We had a good home finale, but it’s all about looking forward so our mindset is on Big Ten this weekend,” concluded Orr.
