Junior Blake Shaffer and redshirt freshman Trent Thomas carried the Kent State wrestling team to a 23-15 victory over the Gannon University Golden Knights in KSU’s first home game and victory this season Friday.
The Flashes trailed after losing the first two matches to the Golden Knights, before scoring 13 unanswered points.
In their game against Gannon, the Flashes lost both the 125-pounder (Sallot def. Calello) and the 133-pounder (Jeremiah Echeverria def. Tyeler Hagensen) matches before they could secure its first win.
“Nico (Calello) has to do better in the first match,” coach Jim Andrassy said.
What was certainly clicking for the Flashes against Gannon was its middleweight wrestlers, as all of KSU’s wrestlers in the 141-165-pound range took their matches. 149-pounder junior Billy Meiszner took home a major decision for the Flashes.
“We did a really good job with dominating the middle (classes),” Andrassy said. “We ended up winning the matches like we should have.”
The Flashes put themselves up 13-6 against Gannon after the first six matches of the game.
As the Flashes headed into the final contests of the game against Gannon, the team needed to secure two out of three matches.
The Golden Knights struck first blood in the crucial sets, as redshirt freshman Patrick Jackson defeated Flashes’ Waylon Wehler in the 174-pounder matchup.
Thomas (184) and Shaffer (197) delivered for the Flashes, taking two of the final three matches and putting the Flashes up 23-12. Thomas secured a major decision, and Shaffer won via fall – these wins resulted in 10 points that went the Flashes’ way.
“Blake is, on paper, the number one wrestler in the conference, and we’re hoping for big things this year for him. For him to go out and do what he did – he was the better wrestler,” Andrassy said. “As far as Trent, he’s pretty new, so I was excited to see him go out and dominate.”
Gannon would take the 285-pound match, but it was too little too late, as the Flashes would beat the Golden Knights 23-15.
“You can’t go into every match favored to win,” Andrassy said. “You need to gain experience, and that’s why you wrestle Gannon.”
Friday’s match against Gannon was not the only work the Kent State wrestling team put in over the weekend.
Saturday, the Flashes traveled to East Lansing, Mich., to participate in the Michigan State University Open.
Redshirt freshman Brentan Simmerman, redshirt freshman Holden Martin and sophomore Kyle Snider took records of 4-0, 4-0 and 5-1, respectively in the MSU Open.
“I wrestled all my freshmen and sophomores in their classes,” Andrassy said. “I was really happy with Brenton Simmerman – went from a loss against a good opponent and then won all his matches (at the MSU Open).”
Looking ahead
The Flashes struggled to start the year with losses at Bucknell and Maryland, but they have a lot to be happy about after strong individual performances against Gannon and in the MSU Open.
The team saw wrestlers unlock their clutch genes, especially in gutsy performances from Schaffer, Martin and junior Ethan Barr that propelled KSU to its first victory.
“We need to go out and score more points,” Andrassy said. “We’ll see where I’m at with them this upcoming week at Navy.”
With its first win of the year, the Flashes have moved to 1-2 and are third in the Mid-American Conference West Division.
The Flashes will travel to Louisville to take on the Bellarmine Knights. The Knights and Flashes have not played each other ever.
Bellarmine has not played a game this season and is coming off a season where it went 14-5 and had seven different wrestlers win matches at the NCWA Great Lakes Conference Regional Championships last season.
“They’re similar to us,” Andrassy said. “If we wrestle well, I think we’ll win.”
Gage Wellman is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected] or @GageWellmanKSTV on X.
