Caravel sticks IR to close dual season
Indian River’s wrestling team might have come up short against Milford in their last regular season match. They might have erred against their opponents from Caravel this past Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the state duals at Delaware State University. But that hasn’t discouraged head coach Jeff Windish, who has vastly improved on last year’s record and will see eight athletes go to the state individual wrestling tournament this weekend at Sussex Central.
Coastal Point • Jesse Pryor
IR's Katteem Harmon puts Milford opponent Derek Chilias to the mat in the last regular-season dual of the season. Harmon will join seven other teammates this Friday and Saturday at the individual state wrestling tournament.
“I’m very proud of these kids as a coach,” he said. “They’ve given me 100 percent, and I can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Indian River entered Tuesday’s state dual team tournament as a No. 3 seed and the automatic qualifier out of the Henlopen South, earning an 11-4 record prior to the event. Paired up against Delaware Military Academy, the Indians pieced together a grueling battle that would earn them advancement to the second round.
There, however, they faced Caravel, the second-ranked team in Division II, behind Hodgson Vo-Tech. The Indians had dropped their match in late January to Caravel by a single point, but were unable to upend them the second time around, as they fell 33-27.
“Caravel’s a great team,” said Windish. “We split our matches with them last time, 7-7, but with the scoring they came out on top. We worked on a couple things here and there and tried to close the gap.”
By the end of the evening, two undefeated teams squared off for the title, as St. Marks High delivered Sussex Central their first dual defeat of the year.
Although the Indian River team had their goals set on the state dual championship, Windish noted that there is nothing for the players to be disappointed about.
“It would be nice to make it to finals,” he said, “but they wrestled tough. Anything can happen at these duals, and Caravel got the momentum shift. They can hold their heads up.”
This weekend, eight IR wrestlers will return to the mat for the state’s individual wrestling championship.
“Wrestling individuals is a different mentality,” said Windish. “In Friday and Saturday’s individuals, a win is a win. You don’t need to worry about getting certain points in certain matchups. Everyone just wrestles to win. The team has really battled through a lot this year.”
Improving to 12-5 this year after last season’s somber 4-11 was a welcome upgrade for Windish’s team.
“These kids are resilient,” he said. “To go from 4-11 to 12-5, I think that says enough.”
Plenty of young talent has stepped up this year, through wrestlers including freshman Rashaun Odom and sophomores Josh Lopez, Devontae Mitchell, Matt Selba and Max Wilkinson, but it’s this year’s graduating senior class that will leave some talented shoes to fill after the weekend’s individual bouts.
“Every year you’ll lose some talent,” said Windish. “We’ll definitely lose our share of talent this year. You don’t replace a Matt McDowell or a Chris Smith. You don’t replace the leadership abilities of a Travis Boyle or Antonio Gonzalez, but we’ve got kids coming back. We have young kids who really got a lot of experience this year. My junior class is loaded with talent, especially upper-weights. Next year’s still a long way away, though. The season’s not over. Our focus is on Friday and Saturday.”
Eight Indians will travel to Sussex Central on Friday, Feb. 26, for the state individual tournament, beginning at 4 p.m. The second round of the tournament and finals will be held at Sussex Central on Saturday, Feb. 27, starting at 11 a.m.
