CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Eight technical falls and six pins helped the Little Rock wrestling team come home with not one but two wins on the road today, moving to 5-1 on the season and setting a program record four-match win streak. The Trojans shut out Queens 55-0 before turning right around and besting Chattanooga 30-11 to close out the day, winning 17 of the 20 total bouts.
"It's awesome, and it's part of the process of getting to the next level," said head coach
Neil Erisman of the recent match success. "We're not satisfied, but we're doing good things. While today was more of a struggle than I wanted it to be, it was good for our guys to push through some hard moments. They found a way to get it done, and that's important."
How They Got It Done
Every single Trojan earned wins by technical fall or fall in the match against Queens: an even 5 and 5 split. In the Chattanooga dual,
Jeremiah Reno,
Triston Wills and
Stephen Little duplicated their results, taking home a pair of technical falls throughout the day. Meanwhile,
Josiah Hill took home two pins, scoring a team-high 12 team points for Little Rock. His first win by fall was the quickest of his career, at just 23 seconds.
Despite a few changes in the lineup from dual to dual,
Brennan Van Hoecke and
Tyler Brennan also went 2-0 on the day, moving the latter up to double digit wins this season - a 10-1 record so far. In addition,
Matty Bianchi,
Joseph Bianchi and
Chase Tebbets were undefeated today, going 1-0 as both the older Bianchi and Tebbets made their first dual start this year.
New, Competitive Mindset
A new mindset is fueling the Trojans through their progress - setting a goal going into each competition week of how many points as a whole the team will score in combined matches.
"I think that's really helped our guys give them a tangible goal in the middle of the match that's more than just win or lose, and helps us focus on the right things," remarked Coach Erisman. "The amount of points we've been scoring is indicative of the attitude that the guys have taken and the mentality behind what wins matches."
That mentality will not change ahead of Monday, as Little Rock will travel to Nashville and wrestle #5 Cornell, #13 Pittsburgh and #6 Iowa State back-to-back at the Collegiate Duals.
"Just because the teams are tougher, doesn't mean our output goals change," said Coach Erisman. "No matter if we win or lose, it'll be a good day if we walk out of there having scored a lot of points against the best guys in the country."
Watch Little Rock compete against the top-15 teams at the Collegiate Duals via Rokfin on Monday, starting at 2 p.m. For fans looking to see Little Rock compete at home in Arkansas, they'll have to wait - the Trojans return to the Jack Stephens Center on Friday, January 19 for a 7 p.m. match with conference foes Arizona State. View the full 2023-24 schedule
here.
Little Rock vs Queens:
125:
Jeremiah Reno TF Daniel Graham (Queens), 17-2 (2:32)
133:
Josh Sarpy F David Makupson (Queens), 1:56
141:
Brennan Van Hoecke TF Connor Goodman (Queens), 17-2 (4:39)
149:
Kyle Dutton TF Ananth Manibushan (Queens), 20-3 (3:00)
157:
Chase Tebbets F Easton Tobia (Queens), 4:34
165:
Joseph Bianchi F Vladimir Sukhikh (Queens), 2:15
174:
Tyler Brennan F Greg Merriman (Queens), 2:24
184:
Triston Wills TF D'Andree Hunt (Queens), 15-0 (1:37)
197:
Stephen Little TF Riley Kuhn (Queens), 19-4 (3:00)
285:
Josiah Hill F Mikey Lytle (Queens), 0:23
Little Rock vs Chattanooga:
125:
Jeremiah Reno TF Tyler Tice (Chattanooga), 22-4 (3:32)
133: Blake Boarman (Chattanooga) MD
Josh Sarpy, 10-2
141:
Brennan Van Hoecke DEC Dayne Dalrymple (Chattanooga), 4-2
149: #30 Noah Castillo (Chattanooga) DEC
Kyle Dutton, 8-4
157:
Matty Bianchi DEC Jackson Hurst (Chattanooga), 8-2
165: Kamdyn Munro (Chattanooga) MD
Bilal Bailey, 10-2
174:
Tyler Brennan DEC Sergio Desiante (Chattanooga), 4-1
184:
Triston Wills TF Wyatt Gibbs (Chattanooga), 15-0 (2:16)
197:
Stephen Little TF David Harper (Chattanooga), 18-2 (3:32)
285:
Josiah Hill F Kaleb Snodgrass (Chattanooga), 6:00
For the latest information on Little Rock Wrestling, make sure to check out
LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockWRES on
Facebook,
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Twitter.
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