Oakville Wrestling Pounds Lift For Life Academy

Young Oakville wrestlers got a chance to move up into the varsity ranks Thursday night and helped the team to a 66-12 victory at home over Lift For Life Academy.

Lift For Life Academy forfeited several matches due to a lack of wrestlers on their team. But that didn’t keep Oakville assistant head coach Nick Wymore from giving credit where it was due. 

“Lift For Life has a lot of talented kids in their lineup for a second year program,” Wymore said. “They just need to get more numbers into their lineup.”

The Tigers won four matches by fall with Jon Bromeier (138 lbs.) winning at 2:50, Nick Chinea (152 lbs.) at 1:49, Dan Zehnle (160 lbs.) at 3:50 and Aaron Hinsen (182 lbs.) at 1:48.

Chinea’s goal from the start of his match against Lift For Life Academy’s Ali Wilson was to get a pin or a technical fall as quickly as possible.

“I went out aggressively right away,” Chinea said. “I went in immediately for the takedown and kept pushing and pulling to try and keep him off his balance. Once I got the takedown I went straight for the points and tried to get a tech or a pin as quickly as I could.”

After the points were tallied up, the teams squared off in exhibition matches to get several wrestlers more experience on the mat. One of those matches was between Oakville’s Trevor Benz and Lift For Life Academy’s Ardimus Caldwell. Benz ended up winning 9-8 with time running out, as Caldwell’s late takedown was too little, too late.

“In my second match, he had me on the sit-out and I had to adjust to that,” Caldwell said. “I almost had him in those last few seconds and I should have listened to my coach. So it was a lesson learned.”

The wrestling team at Lift For Life Academy looked at the loss as another step in building up a new program.

“I felt like we wrestled really hard considering that this is just the second year of the program,” Lift For Life Academy head coach Donovan Thompson said. “We have some guys that are really dedicated and we’re looking forward to some new meets with new opponents. I was very happy with how we did.”

Oakville is back in action this Friday and Saturday as the Tigers travel to Columbia, MO to participate in the Hickman Tournament.