It was a familiar story for the Apalachee High School wrestling team Saturday.
The Mat Wildcats competed at the Madison County Duals and emerged with a sixth-place finish against some quality opponents. AHS opened the weekend with a match against Commerce, a team Wildcat coach Jim Stoudenmire has a high level of praise for.
“Commerce is tough in a lot of spots,” the AHS coach said. “What makes the matchup tough is their strengths are at spots where our strengths are. We also had a few wrestlers out of town for the holidays.”
Commerce emerged with a 39-12 win although Stoudenmire said he’d like to be able to face the Mat Tigers one more time.
“It’s one of those matchups that could go either way,” Stoudenmire said. “We have to come loaded for bear. I’ve known Coach (Kendall) Love since we were kids and he is a great coach.”
In the match with Commerce, Apalachee’s Kevin Bindshusz earned a 5-3 win.
AHS bounced back to face Stephens County and the two teams finished deadlocked at 39-39. Using the eighth tiebreaker criteria, the Wildcats took the match after recording the most first takedowns. Nick Zvirbulis had a key, close win for AHS.
The Wildcats then defeated East Jackson 36-24.
“They had some holes in their lineup too,” Stoudenmire said of the Mat Eagles. “We moved some wrestlers around out of their usual weight class. We bumped some kids up so we wouldn’t have to take a forfeit. Strategically, it helped us although it was tough for some of our wrestlers.”
AHS then emerged from its tournament pool — which also included Commerce, Stephens County and East Jackson — to face White County, In the end, the Wildcats fell 47-33 in a match for fifth place.
“We wrestled well, but had some tough matchups, even for our better wrestlers,” Stoudenmire said.
AHS standouts Trey Dobbs and Justin Skinner had tough matches throughout the day as did Bindshusz.
“I’d like to wrestle White County again in about two weeks when we have everyone where they need to be,” Stoudenmire said. “I’m not sure we will get the opportunity too.”
The AHS junior varsity team competed in the East Metro Duals at Alcovy High School in Covington Tuesday.
The varsity Wildcats will return to action Dec. 27-28 at the Winder-Barrow High School George Thompson Memorial Wrestling Tournament.
“We have been looking to the second part of the season as a time when we can really step up in our performance,” Stoudenmire said. “We’re ready to go.”
