Following last year's Senior Night defeat to St. Marys, the St. Louis U. High Wrestling team has seen a dramatic revamp of the program with an influx of young talent. After another Senior Night loss two weeks ago, SLUH put it all out on the line versus St. Mary’s in this year’s mathcup. The Jr. Bills had lost to the Dragons earlier in the season, but with their last home meet of the season, they finished strong with a 48-28 victory.

“That victory showed the improvements that we’ve been making, just doing those little things right,” said assistant coach Espen Conely. “There wasn’t much fancy about it. We just didn’t wrestle sloppy and not wrestling sloppy was enough to beat St. Mary’s.”

Freshman Ben Besmer (106) started off the meet with a clean pin under two minutes in for SLUH’s first six points of the night. Besmer has come onto the scene recently filling up the 106 spot for the Jr. Bills and proving to be a key starting piece for the lineup going into Districts this weekend. 

“He’s a very athletic kid,” commented Conley. “It took a couple months to get him acclimated to wrestling, to really understand it as a sport. But now that he’s done that and he’s getting the results because he’s wrestling with a purpose.”

Fellow freshman David Chakvetadze (120) followed up Besmer’s performance with a pin of his own, launching SLUH into a commanding 18-0 lead with a forfeit at the 113 weight class. Two additional forfeits followed, increasing the SLUH lead to 30-0.

Senior Connor Whalen (138) was not as successful as his predecessors as he lost on a pin in the second round. The team gained those six points right back the next round, though, as St. Mary’s forfeited at the 144 weight class.

At the 150 weight class, freshman Mike Williams faced a tough opponent but wore him out, going the distance and winning 6-1 decision for three points. The three matches that followed saw St. Mary’s pick up 16 points as they out-wrestled SLUH. 

With a strong set of wrestlers in the middle of their lineup, the Dragons clawed their way back to within 20 points, 39-22. Both juniors Braden Peel (157) and Trey Dino (165) lost in similar fashion, going one round before ultimately being pinned. Senior John Madalon (175) went the distance in his matchup but ended up losing in an 18-5 major decision after six minutes.

St. Mary’s run would end a round later at the hands of senior captain Pau Thang (190), who beat his opponent in the opening minutes of the second round. While his opponent held a height advantage, Thang was able to use his lower level of leverage to gain a pin, which handed the Jr. Bills the victory.

“He’s dealt with some confidence issues but he’s really come together in the back half of this season,” said Conley. “He’s found his style of wrestling that’s specific to him and if you don’t know how to wrestle him he’s very, very dangerous.”

“He’s a lead by example guy that you always want to be in the room with,” said assistant coach William Whitney. “I talked to him after his match and he brought up how three months ago there would have been a different outcome, but he wrestled with confidence and that says a lot about how hard he’s worked all year.”

One of the highlights of the matchup came the very next round as freshman Albert Reinberg (215) beat his opponent in a thrilling 9-7 decision. With the match tied with 20 seconds to go, Reinberg scored two points in the waning seconds to win the match. Reinberg has held down the 215 slot for the Jr. Bills for a majority of the season and, as a freshman, has a lot of potential due to his size and newfound prowess. 

“Al’s a freshman and at the 215 weight class you get a lot of guys who aren’t freshmen,” said Conley. “Over this season we’ve continued to see his progression and with that comes figuring out how to win close matches and take advantage of others' mistakes.”

With multiple wins from the freshman class, the meet showcased the promising future of SLUH wrestling. 

“Four out of our five wins came from freshmen, which is remarkable and says a lot about this freshman class,” said head coach Robert Nahlik. “They’re really turning into something special and wrestling at the varsity level is something rare on its own so to see these guys have success so early is awesome.”

After a strong team performance, the squad prepares to head to Jackson High School for the District Tournament which starts this Friday. Battling against 14 other schools, the Jr. Bills hope to have multiple top four finishers which would then advance to the State Championship in Columbia, Mo.

“Our goal remains the same, to go out there and leave it all on the mat,” said Conley. “We come into the meet with the mentality that teams need to beat us. As far as we’re concerned, we’re going to Columbia.”