Pioneer wrestlers defeat Wood, 52-30

January 11, 2012
By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star


WINCHESTER- There wasn't a lot of wrestling that took place Tuesday inside James Wood's Shirley Gymnasium, and Millbrook didn't have any interest in making the matches that did take place dramatic.

The Pioneers won seven of Tuesday's eight contested matches - including six by pin - to defeat James Wood 52-30 in a Northwestern District dual match.

Millbrook won the last six matches to make the win happen, but Pioneers coach Jake Forestiere said his team still needs to pick up its performance level to get where it wants to be.

"Honestly, I still saw some things that we're doing wrong," Forestiere said. "We've got to be ready off the whistle, and you've got to be ready to go as soon as you step out there.

"Give credit to James Wood. Most of their guys were ready to scrap, and most of them were coming forward the whole time." At the outset, wrestlers were just coming forward to have their hand raised by the referee.

The match appeared as if it would be normal enough. Prematch introductions and a program sheet suggested that each team would have 13 of the 14 weight classes filled.

But after Millbrook's Mike Keeler got the evening started with a win by fall in 5:02 at 170 pounds, the next couple of minutes ensured a light workload for the referee.

Though he went out to the center of the mat for prematch introductions, the Pioneers (17-1, 2-0 Northwestern) did not have their 182-pounder compete and forfeited to James Wood.

In order to maximize points, James Wood (1-11, 0-2) elected to forfeit the 195-pound match to the Pioneers' Joe Jessen and bump R.J. Miller up to 220.

Colonels coach Greg Walker wanted to make that move because he already knew Millbrook was forfeiting that weight class, and this way he could bump up normal 220-pounder Mark Bean to heavyweight in order to get him a match - Bean did not wrestle this weekend at the Christiansburg Duals. But the Pioneers elected not to send out their heavyweight.

At the end of all that, James Wood was up 18-12, and the Colonels added to that with a pin by Jimmy Woznak (3:36) at 106, and another forfeit victory at 113 to take a 30-12 lead. But the Pioneers dominated from that point forward.

Forestiere said a combination of factors resulted in some changes to the Pioneers' lineup.

"We're pretty beat up at this point in the season," Forestiere said. "We're holding guys and sitting them, and we've got off-the-mat things going on too that will be settled.

"We would have loved to have some of those matchups, but you've got to set things straight now, especially when you're a first-year head coach. You've got to set a precedent."

The Pioneers finished off the match with wins by Warren Ramirez (126, fall in 1:00), Luke Anderson (132, fall in 3:08), Dylan Wisman (140, 10-2), Nick Kilmer (145, fall in 2:53), Patrick Jessen (152, fall in 1:15), and Jake Crawford (160, pin at 2:46).

Kilmer fell behind on a takedown just seven seconds into his match, which is something Forestiere does not want to see. But Kilmer rebounded well to take a 5-3 lead after one period, then pumped his fists after getting a pin in the second against Brandon Walton.

Walton was up on Kilmer's back, but Kilmer was able to grab Walton's head and push his shoulders down to the mat.

"I realized as soon as I got taken down that my head may not have been there in the beginning," Kilmer said. "I knew I had to pick it up immediately, and I fought hard from there."

Walker said the Colonels just aren't where they need to be yet to be at their most effective.

"Our middle weights just need to get more experience," Walker said. "The meat of [Millbrook's] lineup is through the middle. If we could have just got through without getting pinned so much, it might have been a different story, but they're a great team.

"We've just got to work harder in the room. That's what I just told them. I told them if you want to win, you want to be good at this, it takes time, effort and commitment. So you've got to make it now, or you're going to be the way you are and you're not going to get any better. We'll see what they can do."

- Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at
rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.