Large crowd turns out for Corbin Wrestling’s first home match

Corbin High School’s Wrestling Redhounds made history last week, hosting the first home match in the program’s short history against Whitley County.

One week after the Corbin Wrestling team hosted Whitley County, the Colonels will have the honor as the teams will meet head-to-head beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Whitley County won nine of 14 matches to take the team victory in the first meeting.

The Redhounds and Colonels took to the mat at the Corbin Middle School gym.

“I really thought there would be some people there, but I didn’t expect that it would be that big,” said Corbin Coach Chuck Davis noting that the stands were full of spectators.

Davis said the team has found a place that it can turn into a home.

“The middle school is perfect for this,” Davis said noting its smaller size and layout with bleachers on one size brought the crowd closer to the action.

Whitley County came through the with the team victory, 48-36.

The Colonels won nine of the 14 matches with victories going to Elijah Pirani at 106, Caleb Canada at 120, Jackson Sutton at 126, Tyler King at 132, Anthony Colmus at 138, Andrew Meadors at 144, Sam Haynes at 165 and Payton Lawson at 285.

The Redhound winners included: JP Carmichael at 113, Rhyne Warren at 150, Gage Feltner at 157, Clement Sell at 175, Brayden Reynolds at 190 and Seth Huff at 215.

“We wrestled okay,” Davis said. “I think some of the kids got caught up in the moment.”

Davis said it was a learning experience for Corbin.

“The biggest thing that hurt us was our conditioning,” Davis said. “They outlasted us in a couple of matches.

Corbin and Whitley County will meet again Wednesday night at Whitley County.

The season will wrap up for the girls on Saturday as the state tournament is scheduled to take place at Tates Creek High School in Lexington.

The boys will compete in the region tournament on Feb. 12 at McCreary Central.

The semi-state is scheduled for Feb. 19 at Great Crossing High School in Georgetown.

The state tournament will take place on Feb. 26 at George Rogers Clark in Winchester.