Last Tuesday, the Ashland wrestling team ended its regular season with a 21-19 win over West Liberty. The interesting thing about this match was that only one varsity starter wrestled.

The rest were back-ups.

“It was great. We only wrestled one of our varsity starters out of ten weight classes,” head coach Tim Dernlan said. “It gave our starters a chance to rest heading into the regional tournament.”

Five decisions and one pin made up Ashland’s scoring. The lone pin came from Johnny Maurice against Joe Wagstaff.

One week prior, the Eagles weren’t able to hang with Notre Dame College as they took a rough loss, 41-0. But the men looked at it the optimistic way and are using it for motivation.

“Notre Dame College was ranked second in the nation and beat us pretty soundly, but we noticed a level of intensity that we realized we needed for the tournament,” Dernlan said.

After this match, AU is ranked No. 15 in the country and has an 11-6 duals record.

Coming in with the number two recruiting class in the nation, Dernlan knew the incoming freshman were something special to help his young team.

“It’s been great to have so much success out of our younger guys,” he said. “With freshmen, you get one of two things. (They either) take a while to develop or they’re young enough to believe they can come in and whoop everybody. We have to use their naivety to our advantage and let them do their thing.”

Dernlan raves specifically about freshman Michael Labry. He is currently ranked third in the nation at 133 pounds and has a 28-1 record this season.

Two sophomores also catch Dernlan’s eye. Joe Brandt and Bryson Hall provide great experience and leadership. Both attended Nationals last year, with Brandt winning an award for pinning the most guys during the national tournament, as a freshman.

Not only are the underclassmen showing their stuff, senior leadership is also very important for Ashland.

“Danny Genetin, he is a leader by voice and by action,” Dernlan said. “He is a three-time national qualifier. His wisdom and experience has been invaluable to us. It’s been neat for our underclassmen to see someone come back from injuries and still show great leadership.”

Ashland will host Super Regionals starting Saturday in Kates Gymnasium. There are four Super Regions in the country and Dernlan believes Ashland’s is the toughest, with No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Central Oklahoma and No. 9 Findlay all competing against the No. 15 Eagles.

Dernlan hopes to get at least three guys to qualify. If that happens, he believes all of them will be All-Americans at the national level.

Wrestling begins 11 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday.