Before the dual against Seneca on Thursday, the Monett Cubs trotted out their four seniors to honor them on senior night. The four seniors went 2-2 in their bouts against the Indians as Seneca went on to win the dual 42-27.
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Garret Bradley, the son of Cubs head coach Daryl Bradley, was one of the seniors honored before the dual.
“It’s different. I wouldn’t wish it upon any dad,” said Daryl Bradley. “It’s rough because you do feel different even though you try to separate it and say, ‘Ah, it’s just another match,’ but it really isn’t because it’s your son out there competing.”
Garret (160 pounds) beat Taylor Cook in a 6-1 decision. He nearly beat Cook by fall in the first round, but the clock was unkind and time ran out in the period. Dad was hoping for a larger margin of victory for his son.
“I wanted [Garret] to beat him worse. And I know he did too,” said Bradley. “He knows that that’s just something he’s going to have to work on. Yeah, we were wanting it, but he wasn’t pinned. If the ref slapped the mat, he’s pinned, but he didn’t so you just gotta move on.”
Fellow Monett senior Bryce Logan (195) beat his opponent Blake Butler by fall. In contrast, the other seniors Sean Jastal (126) and Jorden Henson (170) both lost to their opponents by fall.
Sophomore Joel Barrientos (106) remained unbeaten as he defeated Max Roark 11-5. Junior Onis Howard (132) also impressed with an 8-4 decision over Cole Hatfield.
Aside from those two matches, Seneca got out to an early lead thanks in part to Monett being open against Levi Connelly (113) and Jessie Rhoades (138). Dayton Fields (120) beat Angel Rabadan 3-0, Dalton Hembree (126) pinned Sean Jastal, Trey Smith (145) pinned Jordan Whithnell, Colton McDaniel (152) pinned Desmond Hill in the third round and Lance Hymer (170) pinned Jorden Henson in the first round.
Monett roared back in the heavier weight classes, as Ian Meyer (182), Bryce Logan (195) and Angel Villalta (220) each defeated their opponent by fall in the first period. Seneca’s Nic Granger (285) smothered Trevor Prewitt from Monett and won the heavyweight bout 7-3.
“We’re just striving to do things that we’re working in practice,” said Seneca coach Jeff Sill. “We had some stuff carry over from [the Branson Tournament]. We’ve refined a few things and the kids adjusted and wrestled well out there tonight.”
Both schools belong to the Big 8, but the conference does not feature a conference tournament. So instead, each team will participate in a few weekend tournaments before heading into district play, which determines who goes to state.
“Our season is geared towards districts and state,” said Sill. “It’s just another tournament. And we wrestle tough tournaments to prepare us for the district tournament and we go out there and treat it like anything else. We have our rituals down to what we’re doing all year long, so it shouldn’t be anything different for us.”
“It’ll be here before you know it,” said Bradley. “All of these matches right here, they’re just preparation… We can’t get down on ourselves and we’ve just got to continue to stay positive, work hard and continue to work on our shape and just adjust some of the little things. If we can do that, we’ll send a bunch of kids to state. But if not, I don’t know, maybe it’ll be a small bus with us going to state. We’ll see. It’s up to them.”
