Tournament provide Indians' wrestlers with strong competition

Nearly two dozen teams arrived at Indian River High School this weekend for the Battle at the Beach, a wrestling tournament featuring some of the top athletes in the region. After putting together some impressive bouts and having several individuals surge toward the finals, the Indians finished 14th overall, and third out of the eight Delaware schools participating, in an effort that Indian River head coach Jeff Windish was happy with but one he hoped would help the team prepare even harder as the bulk of the schedule rolls around.

Coastal Point • R. Chris Clark
Indian Rivers Max Wilkinson (152 pounds) grapples with Justin Pierotti of Buena High School (NJ) during this past weekend's Battle at the Beach. Wilkinson defeated Pierotti in a 10-9 decision on his way to a fourth-place finish in his weight class, overall. The Indians grabbed 14th place out of the 23 teams in the tournament.

“The biggest thing to take from a tournament like this,” he said, “is it gets our wrestlers to open their eyes to the quality of wrestling outside of our pocket in Sussex County. What it does is put you up against top-caliber wrestling out of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and it exposes our roster to competition early in the season.”

Charter School of Wilmington scored highest of the Delaware teams in the Battle, placing sixth overall, while St. George’s came in seventh. But it was Bound Brook High School, outside of Newark, N.J., that cleaned up with a comfortable win, finishing first overall. Buena High, in southern New Jersey, finished in fifth, while three Pennsylvania schools – Wilson West Lawn, Dallastown and Emmaus – grabbed second through fourth spots, respectively.

“Our guys wrestled really well,” said Windish, “I don’t think we hit the potential that we’re capable of, and that’s something we need to work on. But, overall, I thought we had some good consistency.”

Indian wrestlers Phillip Bradford (132 pounds) and Max Wilkinson (152 pounds) each finished fourth in their weight classes, while Rashaun Odom (120 pounds) finished sixth in his. Matt Selba (170 pounds) and Jacob Troublefield each finished seventh in their weight classes for Indian River.

“There are certain kids we have huge expectations for,” Windish noted, “and they’re constantly fighting for a final berth in every tourney. To do that, we need to clean up some of our technique. Some of our guys made deep runs, but in tournaments of this size and this caliber, you’ve really got to be ready to wrestle tough matches, one right after another.

“If we didn’t slow down in some of the deep runs, and got a few more guys to place, or had some make it into the championship bout for a first- or second-place finish, I think we’d be right there in the top 10 teams of the tournament.”

The Battle at the Beach put the Indians up against the largest wrestling pool they’ve seen so far this season, but they will have their work cut out for them this week, as they head to A.I. duPont for the Tiger Classic – a tournament with more than 30 teams, stretching from Pennsylvania and New Jersey south into Virginia and even Georgia.

“When you’ve got teams traveling this far,” said Windish, “you know they’re bringing good wrestlers. This week, we need to clean up some of our technique. I think our conditioning, for the most part, is pretty good, but a few individuals know that endurance is their weakness. But we’ll get there. Some guys are still only in their second week of wrestling, after coming off of a long football season. By the end of the break, I expect us to be firing on all cylinders.”

And the Indians will have to be, as their dual-meet season debuts the first week of January, with Delmar and Laurel.

“We have to be ready to wrestle in those dual meets,” said Windish. “It doesn’t matter who we’re up against – Polytech, Delmar, Lake Forest or Laurel – our hope is that the types of events we’ve been wrestling in, three really good tournaments, will help our guys prepare for these divisional matchups. They may not see the same kind of caliber that’s in the tournaments, so I want them to take these competitions and use them to our benefit.”

The Tiger Classic, which draws in schools from throughout Delaware and Pennsylvania, will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 27, and Wednesday, Dec. 28, at A.I. duPont, just north of Wilmington. On Wednesday, Jan. 4, the Indians will open their dual-meet competition with a match at Delmar.