LINDEN — Friday the North Montgomery parking lot was full of buses carrying plenty of wrestlers as the Chargers hosted the always popular North Montgomery Holiday Duals which got underway on Friday morning. The 16-team tournament began the first day as usual with the dual meet format with each team wrestling five matches. For the Chargers after rough start to the day in pool play, they were able to finish the day on a high note winning their final two matches to go 2-3 overall.
North got the day started with a narrow 42-39 loss to Alexandria before falling to the talented Noblesville Millers 67-10 in round two. In the final match of pool play, the Chargers fell to Centerville 42-28. However in the last two matches North rallied together to defeat West Vigo 59-9 and end the day with a 39-32 win over Greencastle. The Chargers as a team placed 13th out 16 teams with New Haven being crowned the team champion.
“Our lineup isn’t at its strongest right now so we’ve been embracing that next man up philosophy,” North Montgomery coach Lincoln Kyle said of his squad. “We did drop a few close ones in pool play, but I was really happy with how were able to bounce back and finish the day with two straight wins.”
The Chargers did have a handful of individuals perform well on the day. Jacob Rice went a perfect 5-0 at 215, Nolan Yarger (132) and Mikeal Kincaid (190) both went 4-1 while Jayden Thompson went 3-2 at 157.
Kyle also did mention once again what a pleasure it is for him and his team to get to host a great event like the Chargers Duals. Every year it continues to bring in great competition and putting on a tournament like this year in and year out isn’t done by just a few individuals.
“To be able to get to be apart of this year in and year out is awesome,” he said. “The competition is great and what we’re doing here is very unique with getting to have five dual meets one day then turn around and have a 16-man individual tournament the next. Not many schools can say they offer that. It guarantees everyone who comes a lot of matches. To put an event like this on it takes a village. Jodi Webster and her family do a tremendous job along with the Thompson’s and our parents and athletes who help make this what it is."
The Charger Duals will conclude Saturday as Kyle noted with the 16-man individual brackets. Wrestlers like Rice, Yarger, and Kincaid look to continue their great showings from the first day and will now get their chance to wrestle even more competition when things get going Saturday morning.
“I’ll be interested to see how everyone competes tomorrow,” Kyle concluded. “We have a couple of guys who have a shot at competing very well and tomorrow we’ll get to wrestle even better competition the further we make it so I’m super excited to see how our guys do.”
Wrestling will begin back at North Montgomery at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
