Ben Whitehead
MARLOW — It was an uphill battle from the beginning for the Marlow Outlaws as they took on Lawton in wrestling Tuesday night.
The Outlaws were forced to forfeit five weight classes and were outmatched in most of the other weight classes. Lawton went on to win the match 62-16.
“Early on, we’re just looking at individuals and trying to correct mistakes,” said Marlow coach Keith Kizarr.
Freshmen Tony Aguilera and Coty Scroggins were wrestling for the first time. Aguilera held his own in the 112 match. Scroggins battled tough at 125 as well, but both lost their matches.
Marlow forfeited at 103 and 119 leaving the Outlaws down 20-0 from the get-go, but Landon Branham gave the Outlaws some life with his pin in the first period of the 130 match.
Branham was leading 7-1 before pinning the Lawton wrestler.
The momentum was immediately erased as Nick Ellsworth was pinned in the 135 match.
Ellsworth led the match 4-2 in the second period and seemed to be in control but a mistake led to his defeat.
“Lawton worked on legs and we haven’t worked on countering legs,” said Kizarr. “Nick had the leg and then let it go and the other guy used his legs to flip Nick around for the pin. It’s just something we’re going to have to correct.”
Tanner Southerland won his match with a dominating pin. He led the 140 match 7-1 in the second period before earning the win.
Dillon Harmon won at 145 with a commanding 13-0 win. Harmon’s victory brought Marlow within 10 of the overall lead at 26-16.
However, Marlow had to forfeit three out of the next four matches. Tyler Patterson lost the 160 match by pin and after the forfeits, Marlow was back down 50-16.
John McLearen and Zack Nooner lost by pin in the 215 and heavyweight matches, respectively.
“We’ll get back to work on learning to take people down and escape from underneath,” Kizarr said. “I’m happy that our younger guys got a chance to compete. We used this match as live practice for them. Our guys just have a lot of learning to do, but I’m looking for good things from them in the future.”
