The Knoxville Wrestling Squad was largely dominant in a quad the Panthers hosted on Thursday night beating three South Central Conference teams 48-30 over Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, 65-18 over Clarke and 47-24 over Davis County. The Panthers in all three matches jumped out to sizable leads and only the Rockets got to nine points but the Panthers took advantage of empty weights and clinched the win with three matches remaining. Wrestlers Andon Trout and Marco Alejo tell KNIA/KRLS Sports the start of the season has been good and they are looking forward to more challenging matches ahead.
Andon: “Lots to improve on, but it’s the beginning of the year, and you’ll have that but I’m excited for what we have coming up the rest of the year.
Marco: “We’re trying to get back to where we left off last year. We’re going to have some tough tournaments and we just have to keep battling and fighting through it.”
The Panthers are now 6-0 in dual meets and will head to the Iowa City Regina Invitational on Saturday. Knoxville was originally scheduled to wrestle in the Roland-Story meet but controversy surrounding a Roland-Story wrestler caused the Panthers to pull out of that event. Roland-Story’s handling of Wrestler Kade Blume has been scrutinized by some. Recently, a school board member resigned citing a lack of punishment for Blume. Knoxville High School Activities Director Ryan Paulsen made the decision to take Knoxville out of the meet at Roland-Story Wednesday night.