BERNE — In its first season as a varsity team, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo wrestling squad won its first dual meet of the year, beating Galway, 45-42.
"Everything just fell into place," said BKW Coach Jeff Vogel said. "We gave one away the week before. We should’ve beaten Schoharie but we had some kids that weren’t able to wrestle. And the following week, the powers that be gave us one that we probably weren’t scheduled to win. We got one and it is very exciting for the kids."

The Bulldogs got big wins from a few grapplers.

Tom Bushnell pinned Tim Snyder in 3:30 in the 125-pound weight class to pick up six points for BKW. Josh Glick won by decision, 7-1, at 140 pounds to also earn points for the Bulldogs. In the 215-pound weight class, Dom Penk pinned Mason Schmidt for another six points for BKW.

Tom DellaRocco, Dave Tiernan, Greg Hannay, Kevin Sherman, and Keith Domermuth all won by forfeit.

There were seven matches wrestled and Galway won four of them.
"Galway had a lot of forfeits," Vogel said. "But we beat them by a couple of pins. They were excited to be in a key match. We had three guys win their match. We did respond."

The Bulldogs gave up a couple of forfeits, but had more classes filled than Galway.
"We haven’t had a 119- or 96-pounder all year," Vogel said. "And, due to injury, we don’t have any at 171. Other than that, we’ve got someone everywhere else. There are a lot of small-school teams that don’t have full rosters.
"We have some wrestlers on modified," Vogel added. "But I don’t believe in bringing up kids when they are not ready."

The fact that Galway won four of the seven contested matches but still lost shows the fickle nature of the sport of wrestling.
"The week before, we wrestled Schoharie and we won all the matches on the mat," Vogel said. "But we had an extreme number of forfeits so we lost the bout."

"The next step"

Vogel has seen a lot of growth in his team on the mat during the season.
"On Saturday, I took some of the kids to a varsity tournament and we had a tough time," the coach said. "We saw a lot of technical aspects that we’ve never seen before. At our next tournament at Fonda, we’ll be much better.
"But definitely, our level of wrestling has improved and our confidence is better," Vogel added.

The improvements have progressed during the season as the Bulldogs have competed at a lot of tournaments and dual meets during the season.
"We are starting to get moves down," Vogel said. "And this week, it’s not just moves, the kids are starting to learn strategy. Where they are on the mat, what move to make, and how much time is on the clock. They are taking the next step."

The wrestlers will have plenty of time to learn as the team has just one senior and one junior. The other 10 varsity competitors are in eighth, ninth, and 10th grades.
"That is very encouraging as well," Vogel said.

The victory against Galway came at home on a special night.
"There were a lot of people there and it was great to get our first win in our last home match of the year," Vogel said. "It was Senior Night and we just don’t honor the seniors but also their parents and everybody who has lended a hand in the program.
"A lot of people came who had never been to a match before and couldn’t believe it. The excitement grew as we were getting closer to winning. You could feel the intensity as it came down to one or two matches. The tension grew and the excitement grew."