The Buffalo wrestling team won every dual on Tuesday in the Hillcrest quad wrestling meet. They beat Diamond 52-9, Central 66-10, and they beat the host team Hillcrest 50-17.
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This wasn’t a typical quad meet, though. Each team wrestled each other team except for Hillcrest and Central; they competed against each other in a triangular meet in Rogersville on Dec. 8. The Hornets won that matchup 39-33.
“To kind of help speed things along, we just stayed apart and swapped back Diamond and Buffalo,” said Hillcrest head coach Marlin VonAllmen. “So it’s a way to get more competition.”
Springfield Central went 1-1 on the evening with the loss to Buffalo and a win over Diamond 42-33. Hillcrest did the same, losing to Buffalo and beating Diamond 48-18. Diamond dropped all three of their duals. Diamond had only eight varsity wrestlers on the night, leaving six open spots in fourteen weight classes.
Junior captain Blake Williamson (160) stood out for Buffalo, pinning all three of his opponents in the first round. In fact, nine Bison wrestlers finished 3-0 in their matches on the night, including Colton Kennedy (195) who beat Josh Bell from Hillcrest 4-3 and beat his Central and Diamond opponents by fall.
“They’re doing really well this year,” VonAllmen said of Buffalo. “The coach has got them rolling, and it was a good test for us. They’re maybe the best team that we’ve dualed this year team-wise. So it was a good test to see how we were going to hang and I was pretty proud of my guys.”
The Hornets gave Buffalo the most trouble on the night. Trevor Moore (120), Seth Robison (126) and Tyler Tindle (182) each earned wins against Buffalo.
“Tonight, my 120-pounder Trevor Moore, he’s wrestling tough right now,” said VonAllmen. “He’s only had three or four losses this year. He’s been a hammer all year for us. Also I’ve got a junior, Seth Robison; he’s been doing very well. He came out with some big wins tonight.”
The crowd was loud and raucous on a night where Hillcrest also hosted a basketball game against Rolla. That didn’t deter people from checking out the wrestling match in the gym adjacent to the hoops action.
“One thing I’ve done since I’ve been here is to try to start more of a wrestling culture here at Hillcrest,” said VonAllmen. “Get the parent involvement, get the crowd involvement, get the community out. So that’s one thing that I’ve really been focused on, because when teachers show up for duals, when neighbors show up for these duals, these boys try so much harder. And you can see that in their effort, you can see it in their faces even. So it’s good for them whenever people show up.”
