Peninsula topples Gig Harbor wrestling in dual-meet, 36-33

Down 36-30 to Peninsula in Thursday night’s crosstown rivalry dual-meet, Gig Harbor’s hope of tying the final score came down to one of its top wrestlers, 152-pounder John Bittinger.

Bittinger needed to pin Peninsula’s Nolan Casey to earn the six points and the tie. Unfortunately for Bittinger, he was going up against one of the Seahawks’ most savvy and experienced wrestlers.

Bittinger had some chances to earn the pin, but Casey ultimately held him off. Bittinger won on a 12-7 decision, but Peninsula won the meet, 36-33.

“Bittinger is a tough kid,” said Peninsula coach Mark Nickels. “But we were confident in Nolan. We knew that he would be able to get in there and battle.”

Bittinger was disappointed he couldn’t seal the deal, but gave it his best shot.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “I got him on his back multiple times. He fought pretty hard though.”

For the Seahawks, it was a good win against a vastly improved Gig Harbor side.

“Duals are won and lost on bonus points,” Nickels said. “It’s the major decision, the tech fall, the pin. The difference between a pin and a decision is huge. If we get a decision, that’s a six-point swing. A pin is a 12-point swing. Those are back breakers. That was the message: ‘Who’s going to get the most points?’ I’m glad it ended the way it did.”

Peninsula’s Luke Golden, Isaac Casey, Brock Allen, Zak Burnside, Cayman Smith and Nathan Johnson won their matches. Gig Harbor’s Zayne Ball, Zach Batanian, Alex Gettle, William Christman, Adam Oberstar and John Bittinger won theirs.

“A few mistakes were made,” said Gig Harbor coach Jacob Spadoni. “I thought we may have been able to sneak that one out. But it happens. We went from losing 60-9 to Peninsula last year to losing 36-33 this year. That shows our growth as a program. We’re not done yet, we have another huge class coming in. we’re hoping to build it more from there.”

Nickels was happy to earn the close win, but was left feeling his team could have performed a bit better.

“We don’t feel we wrestled as well as we could or should,” Nickels said. “We’re a young team. That was the question mark. When you’ve got young kids, there’s going to be mistakes one way or the other. I think we wrestled hard but I don’t think we wrestled well up and down the line. The mistakes that we made are correctable mistakes. We’re happy for the win. We know that we’ve got better wrestling in us and we’re going to get back to work.”

Peninsula did have some good matches though. In the 182-pound weight class, senior Isaac Casey dominated in his match against Gig Harbor’s Will Waymire, going up 5-0 before earning the second-round pin to finish the match.

“You have to have the same mentality,” Casey said. “This situation showed that it was three points that changed the match. Personally, for me, it doesn’t matter who I face. I don’t change my approach too much.”

Nickels was pleased with Casey’s match.

“He’s right where he needs to be,” Nickels said. “He’s a fighter. He’s just now starting to loosen up a little bit and let it fly. When he does that, you put his athleticism and that confidence together and it’s a pretty successful recipe. He’s on an upward trend. We want our kids peaking at the right time.”

Crosstown rivalry aside, Nickels said he’s happy to see Gig Harbor’s program rebound, reversing the trend of its dipping participation numbers.

“They’re doing a fantastic job,” Nickels said. “It’s the difference of having bodies in the room. You get bodies in the room and that’s when you can start being successful. We had some hammers a few years back but we didn’t have a full lineup. That was a hard thing. We’re seeing that with them—they get some bodies in the room and all of the sudden, they’re competitive. It’s not because they weren’t doing the right things in the room. It’s just that they didn’t have the bodies to work with.”

For Gig Harbor’s seniors, the difference since Jacob Spadoni took over the program has been obvious.

“My freshman year, we had like eight kids,” Batanian said. “We have double that now. It’s cool to see a full mat room.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Peninsula topples Gig Harbor wrestling in dual-meet, 36-33."