Eight Mat Hawks perfect at Bruin Duals

The LaRue County Mat Hawks continued their dominating December performance by crushing Lexington Lafayette, Barren County, Meade County and Central Hardin on Saturday at the Central Hardin duals.
No team won more than three individual matches in their dual with the Mat Hawks.
In the match-up with Barren County, the Mat Hawks scored their third perfect score of the year, 84-0. The Mat Hawks almost blanked Central Hardin as well, a team who many believe is the second best team in the region, beating the Bruins 67-3.
Overall, LaRue’s grapplers won 49 of 56 matches for an 88 winning percentage and racking up 38 pins.
Undefeated in four matches were junior Caleb Canter (170 pounds) and seniors Nick Paden (126), Jared Whitlock (152), Shawn Hull (160), Bernard Ray (182), B.J. Carman (195), Drew Newberry (220) and Eli Meredith (285).
Hull (14-0) and Carman (14-0) kept their unbeaten starts intact, while Paden, Canter, Ray and Newberry are a combined 51-4 through the first three weeks.
LaRue County lost just seven times Saturday, with Kyle Edlin (106), Dylan Sheldon (113), Tanner Mouser (120) and Taylor Albert (138) all going 3-1.
Ethan Hutchinson (145) went 1-3.
“Another pretty good performance by this team,” said head coach Gary Canter. “Again, not perfect and we saw some areas we can improve on. There is a hole or two we need to address, but overall, I was pleased.”
“Anytime you wrestle regional opponents you don’t want to have a bad match because that will come back to haunt you at the regional tournament,” added Canter. “We had no one have a bad match, and Jared (Whitlock) had a big win over the Central Hardin wrestler which will help him have a good seed at the regional tournament.”
Whitlock defeated Central Hardin’s wrestler, 3-2.  
“After watching him I really thought I could wrestle with him and I wrestled my match and won a close one,” said Whitlock.
On Saturday, against the two regional opponents, Barren and Central Hardin, the Mat Hawks had an incredible individual record of 27-1. To date, LaRue has faced three regional teams, Nelson County, Barren County and Central Hardin going 3-0 and individually going 41-1.  
“On Jan. 6 and 7 we will have our regional duals where we will face all of the regional teams,” said Canter. “If we continue our performance on those two days that we have already had, we will have set ourselves up for a good run in February. Again, I say our focus is just on Feb. 17 and it is, so our primary focus is on those regional duals in January at our place.”

Photo by Terry Sandidge

Senior Jared Whitlock, the Mat Hawks’ 152-pounder, competed at the Bruin Duals, going 4-0 on the day.

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