CARTERVILLE- The Carterville Lions wrestling team hosted a triangular on Tuesday night and invited Harrisburg and Johnston City. The Lions went 1-1 on the day, beating Johnston City 48-39 but ultimately losing to Harrisburg 49-23.

The Lions started their day off against the Harrisburg Bulldogs; before the match, they were already at a disadvantage as senior Landyn Flood was benched due to injury.

The match started rough for the Lions, with the first five wrestlers losing by pin and another losing by decision. The first pin for the Lions was from senior Merrick Orendoff.

Carter Jones, Jake Grob, and Zach Miller seemed to follow Merrick’s winning precedent, but it was not enough, as the Lions dropped the match 49-23.

When asked about his plan for the next match against Johnston City, Coach Alderman said, “We plan to focus on staying low, getting in our stance, trying to run moves and not force anything.”

In the next match, the Lions wrestled Johnston City; the match started hot with a pin from freshman Addison Mann that seemed to give them some hope after being without a pin for so long in the last match.

During the remaining time, the match was back and forth. Neither team could pull away from the other. Going into the last matchup of the day, the Lions were down by two points. Senior Zech Miller stepped up for the highly anticipated matchup, trying to bring the Lions above the Indians. Zech ended up getting an easy pin to give the Lions the win 48-39.

The Lions will continue their season on Saturday at Carmi-White County. For more sports updates follow @Cartervilleath on Instagram and Twitter.