Young Truman Tigers are experiencing growing pains

Truman sophomore Gunnar (top) is one of the few wrestlers that came back to the team with varsity experience. Gunnar was a District 1 champ and Regional medalist at 120 pounds last year. This season, he is competing at 132 pounds. (Steve Sherman – 21st-Century Media)

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP – With a half-dozen wrestlers from last year’s team who graduated, Truman head coach Jesse Dunn didn’t expect his team to come out with a win in last night’s bout with defending District 1-AAA champion Council Rock South.

The third-year coach didn’t expect his Tigers to lose in such a lopsided fashion either.

“I didn’t expect us to give up so many bonus points the way we did,” said Dunn. “But to be honest, we’re super young, super inexperienced.

“I have a lot of guys who are absolutely in their first year wrestling, some guys who just broke into the varsity lineup. And some guys are only there because it’s an open spot so it was kind of an expected outcome.”

“South – they have a good team right now. They’re the best team in the league, possibly the district.”

To be fair, Truman graduated a large class of standouts last year including 131-match winner Dustin Stone (145), Quentin Mulbah (160-170), Austin Vossbein (152), Dennis Burns (120), Johnny Joel (138) and Connor McAdams (285).

Stone went 33-9 and captured a District 1 title belt at 145 pounds last season. Vossbein captured a fifth-place district medal at 152 and Burns was a district medalist in 2015. Mulbah finished fourth in the Suburban One National Championships, wrestling in the 160-pound bracket. This time last year, he was the Tigers’ 170-pounder.

On Wednesday night, Truman also lost 12 points in the bout when it had no one to take the mat at 170 or 285 pounds. Junior Mike Nicholson is currently penciled in the 170-pound slot but has an upcoming surgery so he won’t be back any time soon. Sophomore heavyweight David Warwick is out with an injury and even so, he is brand new to wrestling with just five varsity bouts to his name. His only win this year was by forfeit at last weekend’s Harry S Truman Duals.

Before the bout, Stone’s name, along with that of 2015 graduate Dylan Nuttal was added to the list of 100-match wrestling winners. Nuttal holds the school record for the most wrestling match wins with 139.

Class of 2013 graduate Bridget Hunt had her name listed on a banner claiming 100 softball/baseball hits. Hers is the only name on the listing. From Croydon, Hunt is an outfielder heading into her senior collegiate season with the SUNY Binghamton Bearcats.

Last year, Binghamton captured its first ever America East regular season title, going 34-15, 14-3 in the AE in the process.