Kenmore Grapplers Top NT

It probably set a record for the quickest dual meet ever held at Kenmore West High School.

More importantly the end result was a win.

Robert Hengle and Ryan Ireland scored pin fall wins as Kenmore beat North Tonawanda 53-26 in a Niagara Frontier League meet that took just 26 minutes to complete.

The speed of the match was due to the fact that a total of eight matches were decided because of a forfeit.

The coin flip worked to the Lumberjacks advantage, as the match started with the heavyweights. Which played into their favor as Veysal Muhktasimov (195), Victor Bogatta (220) and Jordan Holmes (285) all scored pin fall wins to give North Tonawanda the 18-0 lead.

“Where we started I knew we were going to have problems because they’re pretty strong up in the top (weights) compared to what I have,” said Kenmore coach Bill Hineman, who put some of his younger wrestlers out in those matches.

Kenmore senior Calvin Phillips made a good accounting of himself against Jordan Holmes, but Holmes experience was the difference maker as he was able to use his legs to tie up Phillips, then shift him over for the pin.

Tyler Bartolomei, the No.2 ranked wrestler in WNY at 99 pounds, extended the NT lead to 24-0 on a forfeit.

Ryan Ireland put the first points on the board for Kenmore when he defeated Ryan Meyer at 106 pounds.

“It feels really good,” said Ireland, who attends Ken-East. “Especially last year, we had such a small team at Kenmore East that we really didn’t have a chance to win a dual meet. Even with forfeits it feels good to win.”

From that point, NT would only score just two more wins over the next 10 as Nick Rosky pinned Tim Hackney (120 pounds) and Logan Kent, who put his team up 36-35 after he pinned Naem Hassan.

Kenmore took the other eight matches-seven of which were by forfeit.

Though the lost on the scoreboard the Lumberjacks are walking away looking at the positives.

Most noticeably the fact that they won four of the six matches that were wrestled.

“They’re actually good with (the final score) it,” NT coach Joe Hooley said. “Head-to-head we won.That’s the main thing right now. That’s all we’re looking at head-to-head. We’re not caring about the team score right now, as long as we’re going out there and winning head-to-head they’re happy.”

Robert Hengle pinned Andrey Sukov at 145 pounds to give Kenmore its first lead, 35-30, of the meet.

“Robert has been solid for us all year and he’s worked hard in the off season,” Hineman said.

For Kenmore, which is a merged team of Kenmore West and Kenmore East, the win evens their record to 2-2 in the NFL with Niagara Wheatfield and Niagara Falls remaining.

Hineman knows full well that Niagara Wheatfield will be a tall task, but feels that there are some interesting match ups in certain weights that will keep them competitive against the Falls.

Torey Turner, John Milks, Alex Grosse, Matt Guerriero, Ted Hengle, Nolan Sanders and Dakota Davis all received forfeit wins for Kenmore.