YANKTON -- The Mitchell wrestling team knew it had its work cut out for it Thursday night in its first Eastern South Dakota Conference dual meet.
The Kernels and the Bucks were tied 27-27 heading into the last match of the night, and it was Yankton's JT Silvernail that won a 1-0 decision over Denen Rumbolz to give it a 30-27 win.
"The problem we had is (Yankton) has the capability of grabbing a JV kid that's pretty good and bumping him in (to varsity), and we don't have that option to counter," Mitchell head coach Travis Carpenter said. "At 130 pounds they bumped a JV kid up and then bumped a No. 1 rated kid to 135 and ended up pinning both kids. They did the right thing they had to do to win the dual."
The Kernels got pins from Trevor Smith at 171 and Scott Philips' pin at 215 set up the tiebreaking heavyweight match. Jason Greenway (112), Jordan Reiner (145), Austin Havlik (152) and Kyle Larson (160) all won by decision.
"I'm proud of the battle, (we) battled straight through," Carpenter said. "We didn't do what we needed to in a couple places, and we couldn't get bonus points when we need them, but I'm proud of the way we battled back. We took a step forward, now we have to take a bigger step and keep building."
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Mitchell will be in Sioux Falls on Saturday for Sioux Falls Washington's eight-team individual tournament. No. 1-ranked Rapid City Stevens, Rapid City Central and conference rivals Watertown and Yankton as well as the public Sioux Falls schools will all be in attendance.
