The Warsaw Tiger Wrestling team hosted South Bend Riley on Wednesday night in front of a rowdy home crowd and posted a 39-36 win over the WIldcats.
With matches at all levels (Varsity, Girls, and JV) the night was a huge success for the Tigers.
The evening kicked off with matches for the Lady Tiger Wrestlers and the Junior Varsity on separate mats.
The Ladies were dominant on their side of the gym, winning five of seven matches and all of them by pin-fall.
Winners for Warsaw were Mariana Castro, Emily Dawson, Kynna Yoder, Natalie Davis, and Tahlia Feller.
The JV grapplers split the ten contests with Riley at five wins each.
Deleo Castro, Chris Figueroa, Jase Bowers and Ethan Cook were all winners by pin and Christian Cullers picked up a win by major decision.
Prior to the start of the varsity the Tigers honored their five senior wrestlers, but early in the dual the Wildcats would take advantage of Warsaw's youth.
Riley was able to start the night with pins in four of the first five matches: 175, 190, 285, & 106.
The sole Tiger victory in that run came from Kameron Kauffman at 215, who used a big throw to earn the pin.
Down 24-6 the senior trio of Bryce McNees, Elias Garza, and Isaiah Martinez worked to change the momentum for Warsaw.
McNees went up big early in the third period in his 113 pound match before taking a 12-6 decision and getting the Tigers back on track.
Garza put in a clean and efficient match at 120 to earn a first period pin.
In a gutsy performance, Isaiah Martinez battled through a match that saw both wrestlers in danger multiple times before hitting a big throw to secure the pin and big team points.
Now trailing 21-24, the Tigers needed (and got) a big outing from a pair of sophomores at 132 and 138.
At 132 Gabe Veit put together a grinding effort and wore down his opponent to seal a late pin-fall and give the Tigers their first lead at 27-24.
Alex Vallejo found himself in a "match of the year" battle for the Tigers at 138. After leading early and surviving a flurry of scrambles and near falls, Vallejo earned a takedown in overtime that also earned a pin for huge bonus points.
With the Wildcats picking up a win at 144 pounds, the team score moved within three points at 33-30.
At 150 pounds Danny Moon was just inches and seconds away from sealing a pinfall victory a couple of times, but would have to settle for a win by decision.
With Warsaw up 6, senior 157-pounder Aaron Ross wrestled through a tight match with multiple lead changes and salted away another victory by decision to seal the dual for the Tigers.
Riley's win in the final match at 165 would close the gap, but the final team score of 39-36 was good to send the seniors off in style
The Tigers season record moves to 10-10 overall with just a January dual with Triton left. The varsity will travel to Mishawaka next weekend for the prestigious Al Smith Invitational.
The Lady Tiger Wrestlers will also be in Mishawaka next weekend as they compete in the Regional in the first round of the state tournament series.
