Byrns Advances to Wrestling Regional
05 Feb 2009

by Zach Glenn
MHS Sophomore Dominick Byrns took fourth place at the Peru wrestling Sectional on Saturday and freshman Payton Sorg took fifth. After a rough day of wrestling for the Squires, Byrns and Sorg were the only MHS wrestlers to place, with Byrns advancing to the Peru Regional next Saturday.
After a quick turnaround from a torn ACL, MHS Heavyweight Dominick Byrns has had a respectable season thus far, considering. “Actually coming off it in four months is a very quick turn-around. He just ran into some guys today that if he had a little bit more experience, more practice, he should have beaten them fine,” related Coach Wood after the tournament. In wrestling at this level, what place you take at sectionals will determine the caliber of wrestler you face at the regional. Since fourth is the last regional qualifying place, a fourth place sectional wrestler will face a sectional champion at regionals.
“We’ll see what draw he gets next week,” said Wood while looking ahead towards next Saturday. Byrns’ chance of going on to semi-state relies in part on how tough of a sectional his opponent won. “He’s definitely a good enough kid to go onto semi-state but he just [hasn’t] had the time or conditioning yet,” related a hopeful Coach Woods. “It’s going to be tough,” he continued. While it will be difficult, Woods is still optimistic for success. As long as Byrns can pick up a win in the first round, he can continue towards semi-state. If he loses first round, he will be done for the year.
While Byrns started the day strong with a first period pin against Southwood’s Derek Reed, MHS’s 119lb Payton Sorg had a rougher start. After losing by pin to Huntington’s Robert Newsome in the first round, Sorg rallied with a third period tech-fall defeating Whites’ Johnny Mendez 16 to 0. In the third round, however, Sorg fell to Northfield’s Jon Delong by pin in the first period. Sorg finished the day with a win, defeating Nick Brooks of Maconaquah with a score of 5 to 2.
Although they finished with the same record on the day of two wins and two losses, due to the order of wins and losses Sorg was only able to finish fifth while Byrns finished fourth. After his first round win, Byrns lost to Maconaquah’s James Ulerick by a pin very near the end of the second period. In the third round Byrns picked up another win, pinning North Miami’s Jacub Sadler just before the close of the second period. In his final match of the day Byrns lost by pin to Peru’s Jacob Clark, in a battle for third place.
Peru held onto first place throughout the day in team results, while Manchester took eighth place above White’s. Yet Coach Wood is still pleased with his team’s improvement thus far. “I think last week was a better example of it, we wrestled some tougher competition this week. The kids wrestled great last week, and did pretty well. They are tough kids. It’s been a long season for them.” The freshman starters on the team are still getting used to “the longer season and matches of high school.” A young team was not the only factor working against the Squires on Saturday. “We had a couple holes, we gave up four weight classes [when] we thought we’d only forfeit one at 103 lbs. 140 was pneumonia, 189 was injury, and then 215 was grades,” said Wood.
Coach Wood hopes to bring a recovered, stronger and more experienced team to the mat next year. As the team says goodbye to Jacob Hutchinson at 152 lbs, the teams only senior, Wood feels he will have a large number of returning wrestlers. “I don’t think any of them will hang up the laces. They all seem to enjoy it pretty well and they get along. They bounce back pretty quick. Overall we just need to get bigger and stronger,” said Wood as he shared his thoughts on next year.
For now extend your support to Coach Wood and the wrestling Squires in wishing Dominick Byrns good luck at next Saturday’s Regional tournament held at Peru High School.