The annual Indian Duals provided both a test and a tune-up for three area wrestling teams on Saturday.

Eight squads converged on Lehighton Area High School for an event that saw each program compete in a handful of highly competitive matches.

And with Jim Thorpe, Panther Valley and host Lehighton set to compete in the Schuylkill League and Coal Cracker tournaments each of the next two weekends, the opportunity to log more meaningful mat time was a chance none wanted to waste.

“This was a nice kind of workout for the Schuylkill League,” said Indians head coach Floyd Brown. “We got five matches today, conditioning-wise that’s going to help us. The teams we wrestled were solid. For our kids to see that level of competition I think is going to help them next weekend.

“We’re able to see what we’re able to work on now. We’ve got all week to work on things that we can do better and improve a little bit. Overall, it was a good day.”

Lehighton and Jim Thorpe both went 2-3 overall, with each posting 1-2 records in their respective pool matches.

The Indians started the day 1-1, falling to Stroudsburg 36-16 before bouncing back with a 71-3 win over Panther Valley.

Their final match in Pool B competition ended in a 33-33 tie with Manheim Central (9-5), which the Barons won on criteria based on the number of bout victories (7-6) in the contest.

Trailing 33-24, Lehighton won the final two matches to tie it, with Reese Balk getting a pin at 285 pounds and Ethan Nothstein recording a decision at 107.

“We kind of had an up-and-down day, so after a loss we were really stressing how important it was to bounce back and have a short memory,” said Brown. “We didn’t want them to get down on themselves; we wanted them to learn from it and win the next one and just keep wrestling hard.”

Lehighton (8-4) handed champion Honesdale (11-3) its only loss of the tournament in the next round with a 32-27 win before falling to Whitehall 36-30 in its final match of the day. It was a contest the Indians led 21-12 after six matches, and one that was tied 24-24 after nine bouts before the Zephyrs won three of the final four to seal the win.

“We have a lot of ninth and 10th graders in the lineup and they show up and wrestle hard,” said Brown, whose team is currently sixth in the District 11 2A power ratings. “I like our aggressiveness, I like the way we’re improving but we’re still gaining experience in some ways, so we need to build and learn from that fast.

“In today’s matches, we lost by one point (to Manheim Central) on criteria, where maybe if we don’t give up a pin, or if we get a major (decision), or don’t give up a major, it could change the outcome of the match. Even in the last match, if something goes the other way, it could be tied or we win. So we’re right there, we just need to build that experience in those tight matches. Those things all build upon each other, and hopefully as we move through (the season) we just keep getting better.”

Freshman Evan Wentz went 5-0 with three pins and two major decisions for the Indians. Aidan Gruber also posted a 5-0 mark, which included a pin and a technical fall. Balk and Nicholas Zeigenfuss went 4-1, which included four pins for both.

The Olympians (7-6) rebounded from losses to Whitehall (55-12) and Honesdale (62-9) to close out Pool A with a 51-21 victory over East Stroudsburg North.

Thorpe posted a 66-12 win over Panther Valley in its next match before falling to Stroudsburg 58-18 to close out the event.

“I think it’s great,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Dan Heaney. “I look forward to this every year. I think this is really good for us this year, because we have a lot of inexperience, and a lot of these guys haven’t wrestled more than one or two matches in a single day. And they were able to get five matches (in), so I was pretty happy with that.

“I thought we wrestled tough. I think even in some of our mismatches, we still wrestled tough and we hung in there and battled. I know at the end in the last match guys looked a little tired, but that’s what we’re trying to get them ready for, so that when we get to tournaments (later in the year) we can get into those later rounds and still wrestle hard.”

Freshman Steven Korte went 5-0 for the Olympians, which included a pair of pins. Senior Ridge Snyder went 4-1 with four pins.

In addition to the loss to Lehighton, the Panthers (3-10) also suffered setbacks to Manheim Central (66-15) and Stroudsburg (75-0) in Pool B before falling to Jim Thorpe and East Stroudsburg North (48-30).

“It’s not just about getting the matches, it’s about getting good mat time with good opponents,” said Panther Valley head coach Kris Nalesnik. “We come to this tournament knowing that we’re going to have a few kids that are going to get beat up a little bit. But then those kids that are out there – losing or winning, it doesn’t matter – either way, they’re getting experience they wouldn’t get if they weren’t coming to a tournament of this caliber.

“We could go to other tournaments where our kids would win matches. I understand that. I would rather them come here, wrestle teams like Lehighton, wrestle teams like Stroudsburg, and get that experience, get beat up a little bit, and learn from it. That’s what a tournament like this is all about. You’ve got to test your mental toughness sometimes, and that’s where these kids are. I have some tough kids.”

Junior Brian Welser had a pair of pins for the Panthers in the tournament.

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

... Honesdale went 3-0 to win Pool A and 4-1 overall, while Manheim Central went 3-0 to claim Pool B and 3-2 overall. Honesdale posted a 45-19 victory in the matchup of the two pool champions.