You got to admire athletes like Carson sophomore wrestler Nick Shine. When the odds are piled up against them, they still test them. So when Shine, who wrestles at 189 pounds, had a chance to go up against Wooster's Chad Espinoza, a two-time state champion that wrestles at 215 pounds, Shine couldn't wait.
Senator coach Tim McCarthy, though, wasn't so receptive to the idea.
"I wasn't sure about it when he said he wanted to go up (in weight), just because I know what can happen with freak injuries and all that," McCarthy said. "But he wanted to go up, even though he was giving up nearly 35 pounds. I wasn't really expecting too much, but you can't fault the kid for trying."
McCarthy's prediction held true as Espinoza beat Shine 19-4, but Carson still went on to a 54-28 win over the Colts on Wednesday at Morse Burley Gymnasium. Shine's only points came on escapes as Espinoza, a junior, won by technical fall in the third round.
"Yeah, I enjoyed getting thoroughly whooped," Shine said with a smile. "But I like challenges. It was a good learning experience. I thought it might have been a little closer, but I knew it'd be tough match. Hopefully I can put on some more weight and get stronger and give him a better match next time."
McCarthy isn't convinced. Not that he doesn't have faith in Shine. He just knows how good Espinoza is.
"Nick can hold his own, but that's the No. 1 wrestler in the nation," McCarthy said. "It's going to be pretty hard for anybody to do anything against him."
Fortunately, the match didn't come down to Shine. Four Senator won by forfeits and five others pinned opponents, including Chris Kotter, who pinned Jeremy Schumacher just 38 seconds into the first round. Mallory Bozeman, Chris White, Anthony Bass, and Eric Klug also pinned their opponents.
It was tight through the first eight matches when Carson only led 24-22. But Bozeman and White pinned their opponents and Chandler Brown and Paul Carter both won by forfeit as the Senators put the match out of reach.
"Wooster's got a couple of real good kids," McCarthy said. "We pretty much expected it to turn out like it did. We had to change around our normal lineup and had kids wrestling at higher weight classes. Also we had some jayvee kids move up and wrestle today and those kids did a real nice job."
Carson's Kevin Riggin, who McCarthy said has bounced back and forth between the JV and varsity, wrestled at 112 pounds and was pinned by Josh Wilson. Wooster's John McIntosh pinned freshman Cody Albee in the 119-pound match. Albee was just moved up from the JV team for the match as was Bass, who won his 171-pound match by pinning Collin Black with :53 left in the second period.
Carson (10-0) next wrestles in the Sierra Nevada Classic on December 27-28.