Apollo came away with a clean sweep of the City-County wrestling event, as both their boys’ and girls’ teams emerged victorious. Daviess County finished second, Owensboro Catholic third, and Owensboro fourth.
“This is the first year we added girls, even though most teams only have a few girls,” Apollo Head Coach Courtney Johns said. “I felt it was important to get the girls added. For the boys, we wrestled solidly. We definitely didn’t wrestle our best, but the kids went after it.”
The Eagles finished 3-0, beating Daviess County 47-34, Owensboro Catholic 72-15, and Owensboro 66-18. The E-Gals went 2-0, beating Owensboro 48-12 and Daviess County 48-24.
Kevin Lopez improved his season record to 24-1, earning two pins and a tech fall, while Jaxton Howard is now 24-0 after collecting three more pins.
Daviess County was missing three key wrestlers due to illness. Despite that, the Panthers had nine individual City-County champions, with Mariya Meh (236), Kobe Nichols (215), Kali Nichols (165), Jackson Stoner (132), Jah Patterson (126), Parker Lowery (157), Jackson Mattingly (106), Moo Hser (107), and Kaylee Klee (138) all winning their respective weight classes.
“I think we did really well for what we had,” Daviess County Head Coach Colton Gonzalez said. “For what we had in the lineup that we brought, I thought we did amazing. We pulled out some wins that we weren’t supposed to, and we didn’t lose matches that we were supposed to win. Overall, I thought we had a solid night.”
The Aces fell to Daviess County 47-34, but beat Owensboro 42-33.
“I was really happy with the way our boys wrestled tonight,” Owensboro Catholic Head Coach Matt Allen said. “We had several starters out due to injury, and only had nine wrestlers in the lineup, which put us behind due to forfeits before the matches ever started. Of those nine wrestlers, we had three middle schoolers and three freshmen, so the future is promising for our program. We won six of our eight matches against Owensboro and five of eight matches against Daviess County. Apollo has a stout lineup this year, and we knew we were at a disadvantage even without giving up the forfeits, but our kids wrestled tough, and we ended up winning a couple of matches.”
Owensboro dropped their opening match against Daviess County 57-18 before losing a heartbreaker to Owensboro Catholic 42-33, which came down to a late pin. Kameryis Rodriquez Cline went 3-0 on the night at 157, while Isrell Roberts and Adam Quintana Melton finished 2-1 at 132 and 113, respectively.
“While the team placement was a little disappointing, we competed well in spots, especially from our experienced wrestlers,” Owensboro Head Coach Griffin Kelley said. “Our youth and inexperience are a challenge for us. We are working on sustaining a high level of effort and urgency for all six minutes, across the entire lineup. That’s where strong programs separate themselves, and that’s the standard we’re continuing to build toward.”
