Whitehallpicked up four wins at the Columbia Duals last weekend inEast Greenbush, but it was the number 200 everybody was talking about afterwards, as in the number of wins senior Zach Diekel has recorded as a high school wrestler.
Diekel reached the milestone with by pinning his opponent fromColumbiain the final round of the two-day duals.
“I won by pin which is pretty cool,” said Diekel, who took his opponent to the mat with a one leg takedown and finished the bout on the ground.
The 47 second match stands in stark contrast to the long journey it took to reach 200 wins.
Diekel, a four time section champ, has been wrestling since he was in seventh grade, a fact he attributes to reaching the lofty mark.
“It helps when you start young,” he said. “It’s taken lots of work in the offseason. Pretty much my whole summer was about getting ready for wrestling.”
Diekel compiled a 6-0 record over the weekend, including three wins by fall and another three by forfeit. Al Aubin also recorded six wins, Brandon Steves and John Diekel both finished 5-2 and Austin Rich and Julian Barber each recorded four wins for the Railroaders who improved to 5-4 on the season.
Whitehallopened the Columbia Duals with victories over CBA and Lansingburgh on Friday and picked up two more wins on Saturday, defeating Maple Hill andTamarac.
On Friday, the Railroaders defeated CBA 52-24, collecting eight forfeits and pins from Steves and Jordyn McCoy. Barber picked up a win by technical fall.
Later that night, they edged Lansingburgh 39-33. Chad Amerio, McCoy, Barber, J. Diekel, Steves, and Z. Diekel all recorded pins and Jacob Gregory won on points, 8-7.
After a night of sleep, the team was back at it Saturday morning defeating Maple Hill 55-30 andTamarac42-36. They lost to Schalmont 54-24,Columbia65-21 andBethlehem57-29.
Aubin, Barber, Steves, A. Diekel, and J. Gregory all won two matches by fall and J. Diekel, Adrian Beebe, Ryan Love, McCoy, Rich and D. Gregory all recorded a win by fall.
Columbiawon the tournament with a 7-0 mark andBethlehemfinished 6-1.
Last Wednesday, the Railroaders were defeated by Hudson Falls 53-28 in a non-league dual match held in Whitehall on Dec. 7.
The Tigers collected nine wins by fall and a tenth on a technical fall to sink the Railroaders.
Brandon Steves and Zach Diekel both recorded their second wins on the young season. And Al Aubin, John Diekel and Austin Rich, all of whom received forfeit wins against Granville in their first match this season, defeated their opponents to push their record to 2-0.
Zach Diekel, who wrestled at 220 pounds against Granville, dropped down to 195 pounds and pinned Andre Maxam 2:44 into the first period for the win.
Aubin managed to pin Kody Bruno in the closing seconds of the first period and Austin Rich pinned his opponent two minutes into the first period.
John Diekel had a decisive win against Geno Brancati, winning the match on points 17-5 and Steves defeated Tyler Schermerhorn 8-6. Dominic Gregory, seeing his first action of the season, recorded a win on points, beating his opponents in a tight match 8-7.
Standouts Noah Valastro and Aaron Dudley (who joined Zach Diekel in the 200 win club on Saturday) won matches for Hudson Falls.
On Tuesday night Whitehall squared off against South Glens Falls in a non-league dual match and the Bulldogs proved to be too much.
South Glens Falls rode six pins and one decision on points to a 46-33 victory.
Aubin, John Diekel, Steves and Zach Diekel all pinned their opponents as they continued their strong seasons.
Amerio won a 19-14 decision against Jacaob Rivers at 113 and Jacob Gregory picked up a forfeit victory at 145.
