Garrett Stuckman settles in for a pinfall win in his season debut on senior night at Wawasee. (Photos by James Costello)

SYRACUSE — Garrett Stuckman finally made his senior season debut, and two of his classmates earned big wins in the next two matches to put Wawasee out of reach as the Warriors celebrated a 40-33 senior night victory over visiting NorthWood at the Hardwood Teepee Thursday night.

Sidelined with injury throughout the season, Stuckman rejoined the lineup at 152, and the returning semi-state qualifier looked dominant on the way to his second-period pinfall of NorthWood’s Alex Walker. After five first-period takedowns and a nearfall in the second, Stuckman led 13-4 before finishing Walker at the 2:24 mark of their match to push the home team out to a 31-18 advantage.

“He’s fun to watch,” said Wawasee coach Frank Bumgardner. “He’s got a style that’s wide open. He tries to score as many points as he can. He’s very analytical. We talked about some adjustments to make after the match. He’s a great kid. He’s a great leader. He’s been a part of this program for four years and done tremendously result-wise but, more importantly, a good ambassador to the program.”

Next up, Izzy Faurote was nearly as active on his way to an 11-5 decision over Tyler Becker, recording five takedowns on the way to the decision. Logan Baugh scored a pinfall just 27 seconds into his 70-pound bout with Hunter Lechlitner, giving the Warriors a 40-18 margin and putting the team result out of reach.

“Those were huge. Both of them wrestled extremely well. We talked last week after team state about performance, and that’s what it is again. It’s not about winning and losing. Winning and losing is just the result of what happens from your process,” Bumgardner explained. “I thought both of them wrestled really well tonight. Izzy putting up 11 points — five takedowns — that’s big and from very controlled positions against a guy who is hard to wrestle. Those were very good seniors being seniors on senior night at home. So it was a good moment for them.”

“A couple of tough ones right there in the middle — right in the 160, 170 — where, man, if we could pull one of those out, we’ve got a shot. That’s about what I thought it would be going into the thing, once we saw the lineup and started the night,” said NorthWood coach Nate Andrews. “Give them credit. They won the matches they needed to win tonight to get the victory as a team.”

The heart of NorthWood’s lineup won the next three matches, but it was just a bit too little, too late.

Indianamat.com fifth-ranked 82-pounder Jake Lone pinned Fernando Hernandez at the 2:45 stop of the clock, Jaden Miller followed up with a pinfall of Austin LaJoice at the 1:52 mark at 195 pounds, and Isaac Benjamin scored a pair of third-period takedowns on the way to an 8-3 win against Hunter Spitzmacher in the final match of the night.

“Jake looked good tonight. Jaden wrestled tough. I like the way he came out,” said Andrews.

The Panthers started the night with a win at heavyweight, where a very undersized Blake Herr scored an early second-period escape and a takedown of Nick Clark on the way to an eventual third-period pinfall win.

“Blake Herr has had a tremendous season. He weighs 205 pounds, and he’s wrestling at 285. He’s used some great body awareness and some things like that, and he’s got good hips,” Andrews said. “He’s really, really coming along as a wrestler and as an athlete. I thought that was good.”

The Panthers moved out to a 12-0 lead with a Wawasee forfeit at 106 before Hunter Miller gave the Warriors their first win of the night via a 12-1 major decision over Sam Shultz. With 10th-ranked 126-pounder Jace Alexander out of the lineup for the night, Bumgardner slotted Keyan Herbst in for a forfeit win at 120, and Dylan Tom bumped up to 26, where he collected a total of 14 back points en route to a 16-0 first-period tech fall of Wyatt Guevara to give Wawasee a 15-12 lead, one that the Warriors would never relinquish.

Logan Baugh works for his pinfall win at 182 pounds.

“At weigh-ins they did not have a 20-pounder step on the scale. So not having Jace, we’ve got two 20-pounders, and we wanted to put our team in the best position possible to win, because as you saw it was a tight dual,” Bumgardner explained. “Just the way that it works with reporting to the table designating who your wrestler is, that’s why we made them report a forfeit first, and then we put Keyan Herbst in to get the forfeit and bump DT up. We told our guys ‘Do not report to the table until we tell you when.’”

Brenden Dilley’s 15-4 major decision win over Cam Jones at 32 and Gavin Malone’s first-period pinfall of Troy Cutter at 138 pushed Wawasee’s advantage out to 25-12 before the Panthers got another win, when Kaden Lone pinned Tim Shortt in just 24 seconds at 145 pounds.

NorthWood closed out its Northern Lakes Conference slate at 4-3. The Panthers will be back in action at the Fort Wayne Concordia Invitational Saturday ahead of the NLC Tournament Saturday, Jan. 25.

“Unfortunately, that was a big one. We win that one, and we finish third,” said Andrews. “We get beat, and so now we’re fourth, so we’re right in the middle of the pack.”

With Thursday’s win, Wawasee concludes its NLC dual record at 5-2. The Warriors will travel to Penn next Tuesday before returning home for a Thursday night dual with South Bend St. Joe, but first they get to celebrate a big NLC win on a night dedicated to a deep senior class.

“It’s big, and it’s a phenomenal group of human beings,” said Bumgarder. “The managers are outstanding. The wrestlers have been a treat for four years. We never worried about disciplinary issues or anything like that with this group. Hard-working, great kids. This has been a fun group to have for four years.”