MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets came out strong and aggressive to take down the Big Walnut Eagles, 47-26, in Ohio Capital Conference wrestling action on Thursday.

It was the smaller third of the Jackets’ roster that got things going and, ironically on Senior Night, it was freshman Karsten Harger who lit the spark. The Jackets’ 103-pounder pinned Big Walnut’s Sean Conley at 3:01 of the match.

“We started right off with Karsten,” said Mount Vernon coach John Brown. “He came right out and did a tremendous job. He took a couple of nice shots. He caught the kid on his back and put him away.”

Dylan Pauley gave the Jackets a win at 112 pounds, defeating Nate Linnabary, 7-1. After Jackets’ 119-pound Dakota Riley lost a close one to Zack White, 5-3.

“Dakota’s up a weight class,” said Brown. “He’s a freshman and he did a nice job against a junior to only lose by two points.”

Nick Yashnyk (125 pounds) got them going again, pinning Big Walnut’s Anthony Roberto, at 1:08 of their match.

“Nick came out at 125 and took it right to the guy, right off the bat,” said Brown. “He took him down. Nice takedown.”

Collin Riley (130) dominated his match over Big Walnut’s Aaron Gase. Riley didn’t pin his opponent, but was spectacular nonetheless, picking up his Gase and throwing him to the mat a couple of times during his 16-3 win.

“Collin came right in and continued it,” said Brown. “That was Collin’s first time down at 130 this year, so it was a nice match for him. He went the distance, but still dominated the kid.”

“I just do what Coach Brown and the other coaches taught me,” said Riley. “We all practice together and it’s pretty good. We go hard at one another — as hard as we can.”

It was Jackets’ assistant coach John Frye, who taught Riley the claw lift.

“I use it as much as I can,” said Riley. “I try to get them on their back.”

Mount Vernon’s Alex Gamble (145) pinned Chad Harness at 3:09. Nate Fry and Jordan Montgomery, wrestling up a weight class for the Jackets, got the other pins for the Jackets. Montgomery (171) took down Ian Barney at 1:49 and Fry scored his fall on Ryan Tutorow at 3:45.

“We wanted to get Jordan back on the mat again,” said Brown. “We also wrestled Nate up and they both did a nice job, bumping up in class and wrestling smart against the extra weight.”

Mount Vernon senior Dane Cullen also wrestled up in the heavyweight class and defeated Jason Griffith, 8-1.

“I was actually supposed to wrestle at 215, but I didn’t cut as much weight as I planned, so I got to be heavyweight,” said Cullen. “I thought Levi Green was going to wrestle heavyweight, so I had to get myself pumped up at the last few seconds when I knew I was going to have to go out.”

The last minute changes can be good for a team.

“A few of us had to flip flop,” said Cullen. “You can test out some of the younger kids for what they can wrestle for next year. That’s great for the team if they can put a kid in a different spot.”

“That’s one of the things we want to do right now is test them as much as possible to get them to learn and grow,” said Brown. “That’s going to be the key thing to help them.”

The Jacket’s other senior, Wyatt Glick, lost on a technical fall to Tyler Schenz, 17-2. Kyle Horner (140), Kyle Daniels (152) and Josh Wright (215) all lost on falls. Korey Bielecki (160) gave the Jackets the only forfeit win of the night.