Capital City wrestling opens season with win against Father Tolton

The Capital City Cavaliers knew they were going to win their season-opening wrestling dual against the Father Tolton Trailblazers.

With only four wrestlers available for Tolton, it was a done deal. But the Cavaliers still set a goal to win as many of the contested matches as they could Friday night.

“We went 3-1 on head-to-head, that was our goal,” Capital City coach Mitch Werdehausen said after the Cavaliers’ 69-6 dual win. “They met the goal.”

Sterling Wheatley jumped out to an 8-0 lead after one period in his match against Frank Ruether at 120 pounds, getting a takedown and two 3-point nearfalls. However, Ruether battled back and made the score 8-7 early in the third period.

Wheatley was able to get an escape and then scored a takedown with :27 remaining to secure an 11-8 win by decision.

“I told him at the beginning of the year: technique wins the first period, conditioning wins the second, but the third period’s about your heart,” Werdehausen said. “He has a lot of heart and he had decent technique. He needs to work on his conditioning, and we talked about that after the match.”

Eli Schuemann fell behind 4-0 in the opening period against Tolton’s Roland Harrison at 132. However, Schuemann scored an escape and then a takedown before winning by fall in 1:31.

“Eli’s always a fighter,” Werdehausen said. “He tends to get down in matches a lot, so that’s something we’re going to work on in the future. But he’ll fight through the end of every match he wrestles.”

Ethyn Otto lost by fall to Brant Whitaker in 1:19 at 170. Whitaker is a two-time Class 1 state champion, winning at 152 as a sophomore at Boonville and then at 160 last season with Tolton.

“He scored a point on him and he didn’t get turned with the leg,” Werdehausen said of Otto. “I give him props for that. He wrestled hard, and he’s only a second-year wrestler.”

Ian Nelson, a returning state qualifier for the Cavaliers, finished the dual with a win by fall in :45 against Derek York at 220.

“We expect Ian to win that match, and he came out and won it,” Werdehausen said. “There were no surprises in that one.”

Winning by forfeit for the Cavaliers were Austin Feely (113), AJ Kempker (126), David Ashcroft (138), Keaton Schrage (145), Ty Wood (152), Eli Jenkins (160), Jabari Hubbard (182), Kaleob Latham (195) and Hurley Jacobs (285). Both teams were open at 106.

Friday was the first home dual in program history for Capital City. Both home duals on last year’s schedule were canceled due to inclement weather.

“We’ve got a nice facility that’s great for wrestling,” Werdehausen said. “I’m looking forward to hosting in the future.”

Since the dual against Tolton only lasted 20 minutes, Capital City held an intrasquad scrimmage afterward, featuring nine matchups for wrestlers who didn’t get a chance to compete in the dual.

“We didn’t charge any admission fees,” Werdehausen said. “People could come watch us against Father Tolton and then watch us scrimmage. We just wanted it for the fans and for the kids.”

In the scrimmage, Gibril Wilson, Jacob Weaver, Eli Jenkins, Ty Wood, Ted Krause and Arya Ahmed won by fall. Brandon Sorrell, Latham and Justin Sullens won by decision.

“We’ve still got some things to work on,” Werdehausen said. “Every day we get better, and the scrimmages just help us isolate what we need to work on.

“The scrimmage is more like a live match than practice. They get better experience in a scrimmage.”

Capital City (1-0) will host Union at 6 p.m. Tuesday.