With Bridgeport heading into a quad match today with Liberty, South Harrison and Liberty-Raleigh, one may be under the impression Coach Chris Courtney is down due to his team finishing 15^th out of 17 teams in the Mountaineer Matchup this past weekend at the Clarksburg Nathan Goff Armory.

 

Such, however, wasn’t the case.

 

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Courtney. “We only filled seven out of the 14 weight classes with Nathan Popichak, our junior varsity wrestler at 132, helping out by filling. The boys that were there competed. That is all we ask of them.”

 

What that meant was barring a team not having a wrestler in the same category, the Indians had already lost half of their matches by forfeit before things even started. To compound matters, the Indians wrestled without Kavaughn Summers, Josh Wojciechowicz and John Rush (all three should compete this evening)

 

Even with just seven wrestlers, three had spectacular days with Austin Gibson leading the way. He went 10-0 in the 152-pound classification.

 

“Austin is a competitor. We have worked with him on restyling his attacks on his feet.  I am starting to see improvement in this area,” said Courtney. “He is inconsistent on his feet. I hope he is committed moving on. If he is he should have a good run toward the end of the year.”

 

Aidan Gibson (126) and Kemo Summers (132) were also impressive. Both finished the competition at 9-1.

 

“Both are young talents. We need them, as well as, the rest of the team to buckle down and work on the areas we have identified for each wrestler to work on,” said Courtney. “In order to continue to be successful they have to be willing to put the extra time and effort in to be a student of the sport.”

 

Of course, Courtney believes that’s true of the whole team as the regional competition is not too far away.  

 

“(We’re taking things) one day at a time. The season continues to get tough. I think they are up for the challenges ahead of them,” said Courtney.

 

Along with today’s home match that starts at 6 p.m., the team will be back in action Saturday. The Indians will compete in the Willamstown Rumble, which is a bracketed tournament.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Kemo Summers getting ready to get the pinfall, while Addison Courtney makes his move in the bottom picture. Photos by Joey Signorelli of www.benqueenphotography.com.