By JAMES PENCE, for The Democrat
EVANSVILLE — Three Brown County wrestlers came up short in their quest for a ticket to the state finals at the Ford Center in Saturday’s Evansville Reitz Semistate.
“Overall, it was a pretty good season. It was better than last year and better than the year before,” Brown County coach Josh Sparks said. “As long as we keep showing progress and improvement, these results will take care of themselves.”
Junior David Tucker won his first match at 126 pounds against Breken Greene of Mooresville by pin in 1 minute, 23 seconds. He then lost in the ticket round to Evansville Mater Dei’s Kane Egli by a 13-4 major decision.
At 132, senior Bryce Denton won his opening-round match against Floyd Central Evan Combs by pin in 3:53. He then fell to Evansville Mater Dei’s Clay Egli by an 11-0 major decision.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Senior Brandon Leslie lost his first-round match to Floyd Central’s Gavinn Alstott at 113.
Sparks appreciated what Leslie and Denton contributed to the program this year, and he also expects the future to be bright.
“Each year, we are getting more seventh-graders and eighth-graders, so I think that help will us get more growth for the program,” Sparks said. “David was our only junior on the team this year, and that’ll be it for our senior class next year, but then we have several sophomores and quite a few freshmen. We’re losing a couple seniors this year, but there are going to be a lot of new guys coming in next year.”
