Kennett Indians sweep Tri-Match

KENNETT, Mo. - After two and a half hours of wrestling, the Kennett Indians celebrated a hard-fought sweep at their home Tri-Match.

The Thursday night mania included Valley View High School, from Jonesboro, Ar., and Dexter taking on the Kennett Indians.

The Indians would take down both teams in the presence of their home fans. They had a commanding 54-12 win over Valley View and a 48-36 victory over Dexter.

The Kennett girls also won their dual match on the evening, beating Dexter 42-16.

Kennett head coach Jim Tidd said he enjoyed how hard his wrestlers fought on the mat to secure two major wins.

“The main thing we have been trying to stress is being aggressive,” Tidd said. “We didn’t want our kids waiting for the other team to run their moves. We wanted to be the aggressors and impose our will on them, and for the most part, we did that tonight.”

All but three of Kennett’s physical victories were by fall, commonly known as a pin.

Senior Logan Decker won both of his matchups by fall in the 132 weight class. He was 2-0 on the night and contributed six points to both team wins.

Other seniors James Shield, Michael Williams and Kevin Thompson also won both of their matches on the night.

Shield took down his Valley View opponent in the 138 weight class by fall in under 20 seconds, then won by fall against his Dexter opponent with a cradle pin.

Williams won both of his matches in the 144 weight class, while “Big” Kevin Thompson battled it out with two wins in the 285 weight class.

Although these seniors led by example with an undefeated night, Tidd was more proud of his freshman and first-year wrestlers who are starting to see things click.

“Anytime our freshmen run a move that we’ve been working on in practice, and they do it, and it works and they get a pin out of it, and they jump out and down, that’s what I like to see,” Tidd said. “These seniors have done this for four years, I’m used to seeing them win like that. I’m just as proud of them, but I get fired up with these younger wrestlers and freshmen do a move and it works for them. I was proud of our young guys tonight, especially.”

Freshman Keiarah Thompson gave the Kennett girls six points in their win, pinning her Dexter opponent in the 155 weight class. After receiving a bye against Valley View, freshman Lukas Crum also got a win in the 175 category for the boys as he forced a fall against Dexter.

Along with her, sophomore Lavon Downey won both of his matches by fall while wrestling in the 157 weight class.

The biggest victory for Kennett was their win over Dexter. The last time these two teams faced, Kennett only won by one point. Tidd said it was big of them to win by 12 this time around, even with having fewer wrestlers competing.

“We still have a young team and a lot to work on, technically,” Tidd said. “But the motivation and the drive was there tonight. This tells us we are getting better though, with a few of our guys taking back wins which were losses the last time we faced Dexter. They’ve come a long way this year.”

Other notable victories included junior Joel Lopez in the 215 class who won his first match against Valley View by fall and sophomore Fred Patterson in the 126 weight class who had a bye against Valley View and forced a win by fall over Dexter.

Junior Bryson Tilmon also had a bye against Valley View before beating his 165Ibs Dexter opponent. Finally, after dropping his first match by points (8-6) against Valley View, senior Austin Gattis came back and won by fall against Dexter in the 190 category.

“I think we did a pretty good job today,” Tiidd said. “We were a ball of fire, especially wrestling at home. It fires us up because we get to compete in front of our family and friends and people who normally don’t get to see us when we hit the road.”

Kennett’s next wrestling match will be at the Sikeston Tri on Tuesday, Jan. 21. There, they will face Sikeston and Notre Dame, from Cape Giradeau.

Following this, they will prepare for their last home match of the season against New Madrid County Central on Tuesday, Jan. 28.