The Manual wrestling team defeated rival Male 46-24 on Saturday, Feb. 7 at home on the team’s senior night. The rivalry game combined with senior night made this match heavily-anticipated and a major highlight to the season overall.

“I’m pleased with the ones who wrestled,” head coach Jon David Wolfe said. “Even the ones who didn’t win are learning from the mistakes they made, and that all carries into the Regional tournament.”

Tonight’s final score did not reflect on that of other meetings with the rival in the past season, according to junior Alex Shah, who defeated his Male’s Brad Osborne 14-3 in the 142 class.

“We didn’t wrestle them last year, but my freshman year we beat them by just a few points,” Shah said. “We blew them out of the water this year and did a lot better than we were supposed to.”

Manual’s past two victories in the past have come down to the last two rounds, according to senior Daylen Eichenberger, who pinned Male’s Peyton Martin in the 195 weight class.

“I think Male did poorly tonight and they didn’t stand a chance as far as the final score,” Eichenberger said.

Manual had a total of five pins that night in the 14 rounds of competition. Male only acheived one pin, and that was by Garrett Chandler against senior Noah Ewing in the 220 class. Chandler is ranked second in the state.

Manual had an overall five losses and nine wins, and two of those losses were from forfeit due to not having an eligible competitor. Male forfeited the 120 class in the final round, but Manual already had a well-sealed victory.

“I feel like when we wrestle Male, we wrestle a lot harder than we would against some other team because there’s a lot more pride,” Shah said.

Manual is now ready to take on the Regional Tournament next week, where emotions will run higher than ever.

“The regional tournament is what we’ve been looking forward to all year so it’s a big step for them,” Wolfe said. “There are a lot of emotions when playing Male, and sometimes it can be hard to control those emotions. We’re trying to handle the pressure, even before a match like this.”

Vinegar pinned his opponent in the 285 weight class, bringing the Manual lead up to 34-18 close to the end of the match.