There are two ways to react to what Aquinas High School freshman Martez Sheard and Holmen freshman Nathan Henderson showed everyone in attendance at the La Crosse Center on Saturday night.
One is to hope the two will separate in size soon and dominate the competition without having to run into each other at events like the Bi-State Classic.
The other is to hope nothing changes and that we are in store for more of these matchups in the future.
No matter what happens, wrestling in the Coulee Region was a winner as the two competed for the 120-pound Bi-State championship in the final match of two exciting days of an event that began 42 years ago.
Sheard and Henderson didn’t give those who waited for the anticipated showdown just six minutes of wrestling. They went eight, and Sheard had to dig deep to find a way for a reversal with 19 seconds on the clock that gave him a 3-1 victory over his practice partner.
“This is a great experience,” Sheard (16-0) said after the win. “I’ve been watching Bi-State for years. I finally got to wrestle in it, and I won it.”
Henderson (14-2), who works out regularly with Sheard as partners at La Crosse Area Wrestlers, didn’t make it easy.
He was aggressive, and he fought his way out of two predicaments in particular that kept him in the match and kept the crowd buzzing from the time the first whistle blew until the sound of the last.
After a Henderson escape in the second period put him in a 1-0 hole, Sheard had to push his offense to get on the board. Henderson fought off one attempt at a takedown for more than a minute and got out of another potential reversal near the edge of the mat later in the third.
“That did take a lot out of me, and I thought he might have had (the takedown),” Henderson said. “But when I checked the clock after and saw he had zero (points), I was happy.”
Sheard eventually got his tying escape with 17 seconds left in the third, but Henderson had thwarted two moves that would have given Sheard the lead.
“I just had to keep fighting for openings,” Sheard said. “I was trying to get to a duck-under, and that’s eventually how I scored, but it took some time.”
Sheard’s escape eliminated Henderson’s lead, and the two went scoreless in the one-minute overtime. Sheard maintained top position for the first 30 seconds before finally breaking through 11 seconds into the second 30-second period and maintaining control the final 19 seconds.
It was just the kind of match he expected from a very familiar opponent who simply went at him with the best he had. Henderson said after the match that he wasn’t going to change much of his attack despite the fact that the two know each other so well.
“I knew he liked the outside shot, but that wasn’t going to change what I did,” Henderson said. “I thought he’d be a little more aggressive, but that was the only thing that was different to me.”
Henderson had something to do with that. Sheard expected Henderson to push pace, but Henderson enjoyed great success with that in the first period. While the match remained scoreless, Sheard wasn’t allowed a legitimate chance to score because he had to fight off the continuing attack.
“I knew he was going to push the pace because that’s what he does at practice,” Sheard said of Henderson. “I was ready for that.”
Now, the two begin to get ready for bigger things. The prestige of Bi-State aside, the push to be ready for the postseason will come quicker than expected. And both showed on Saturday that goals for that portion of the season should be set very high.
“I wrestled my best, and I gave it my all,” Henderson said. “I wrestled eight minutes and lost by two points.
“I feel disappointed that I lost but good with how I did in the tournament.”
