Madill no match for Cougs

ADA — The Ada Cougars wrestling team flexed its muscles Tuesday afternoon in its 51-15 victory over the Madill Wildcats at the Ada Junior High School West Gym.

Of the 13 matches contested, the Cougars (6-4 in duals this season) won 10 of them — four of them by pinfall. Jamie Copeland (112 pounds), Hunter Bedsole (125), Eddie Brown (140) and Josh Nail (heavyweight) got wins by pinfall, accounting for 24 of Ada’s 51 points.

But the victories by Brown and Nail were not easy to come by for either matman. While Brown pinned Madill’s Lane Pruitt in 2:50, it almost was a pinfall for Pruitt.

“At first, I was just trying to stay off my shoulderblades,” said Brown, a senior. “He kind of caught me off guard a little bit, but he kind of let my leg loose. I was trying to work off his mistake, and I ended up getting on top of him and I got the pin. I wasn’t expecting to do all that, but I’ll take (the pinfall win).”

For Nail, also a senior, he has always had to combat the fact that in most of his matches, he is outsized by his opponent — and Madill heavyweight Brandon McCain was no exception.

“The only problem (McCain) gave me is that he had such a weight advantage on me,” Nail said. “I’m a heavyweight wrestling at 220 pounds, and he weighed in at 257. (Weight) is an advantage I’m always giving up, but my speed makes up for that. When they have such a weight advantage, you have to rely on your strengths, like my speed and my upper body power. I was basically able to out-power him.”

Jake Todd, Jeb Todd and Chase Cummins got decisions in their matches. Jake Todd beat Levi Shelby 7-4 at 119 pounds. Following Bedsole’s pinfall win, Jeb Todd defeated Luke Chapman 8-3 at 130, then Cummins beat Shelby Salyer 4-1 at 135 to give Ada a 27-0 lead going into Brown’s match at 140.

Three Ada wrestlers won by forfeit — Madison Thornhill (103 pounds), Derrick Brown (152) and Justin Todd (160).

“We’re pleased,” Ada coach Kyle Bohannon said. “We had that time off with that ice storm. We didn’t have a lot of time to practice. We weren’t sure how we would come into (Tuesday afternoon’s dual) after that break. I was pleased to see our guys compete as well as they did — and happy to come out with a victory.”

The three wins the Wildcats (12-7) got came in a set of three straight matches. Issac Green won by injury default at 171 pounds, followed by Bradley Avery’s pinfall win at 189 and Cole Benson’s 3-2 win at 215 pounds against Dean Doolen — in a match which could have gone either way. There was a double forfeit at 145 pounds.

The Cougars will not have much time to rest. Archrival Ardmore comes to town Thursday night for action beginning at 7 p.m. at Cougar Activity Center.

“Ardmore is a talented group of wrestlers down there,” Bohannon said. “They have a great coach in Coach (Richard) Dabbs (formerly at Sulphur), and he’s brought those guys a long ways. I don’t know how far the rivalry goes back, but anytime we get to wrestle someone who’s close like this who has a talented group like we do, we’re ready to clash with anyone who wants to get on the mat with us. I hope everyone can come out. It ought to be interesting. We hope to put on a good show for everybody.”

“It’s also a big rivalry in wrestling,” Eddie Brown said. “They’re our rivals, but we’re looking at them as big competition for us. They’re pretty solid this year. We’ve seen them at a couple of tournaments, and they’ve placed people in the finals. We can’t look past them. We’ve got to work (today) on the mistakes we made (in Tuesday’s dual) to get ready. We have to focus on Ardmore.”

“You can’t overlook anybody,” Nail said. “Ardmore is one of those teams who if you do overlook them, they can come back and bite you in the butt. But the only thing I’m worried about is some of our team members don’t always focus. We’ve got to get our heads back in it. We can celebrate (the win over Madill) for now, but (today) it’s time to go back to work again.”

In the junior high portion of Tuesday afternoon’s dual, the Cougars made it a sweep of the ’Cats, winning 42-33. The junior high Cougars will open things up in Thursday night’s dual with Ardmore beginning at 6 p.m.