Kennedy dropped a Mississippi Valley Conference home wrestling meet Thursday night to crosstown rival Jefferson, 43-27.

There were nine pins with Jefferson scoring six of them. The J-Hawks got pins from Kyle Briggs, Kelly May, Luke Sedlacek, Josh Allen, Drake Allen and Dalton Kuehl. It was May’s 16th pin in 23 wins.

“I always wrestle for the pin,” said May. “I expect to get a pin every time I go out there.”

“We were aggressive tonight, but we didn’t always finish,” said Jefferson Coach Dick Briggs. "Both teams are young, but I think we may have showed a little more experience tonight."

Kennedy started the night with a big 10-3 victory by freshman Nolan Hromidko over freshman Brenden Baker at 106 pounds. It was the only match that pitted ranked wrestlers against each other. Hromidko, ranked No.7, put the match away with a takedown and near-fall points in the last eight seconds to pull away from Baker, ranked 10th.

"I was kind of nervous at first and we were the first match,” said Hromidko. “After the match got going I forgot about that and as the match went on I widened my gap.”

The Cougars picked up pins from Shaun Beyer, Jacob Mason and Zack Goodall.

“We battled all night,” said Kennedy Coach Dennis Hynek. “You’re never satisfied with a loss, but our kids picked up three pins and Hromidko, at 106, picked up a big win in his match.

"We just came up short tonight.”

The Kennedy program honored Brent Paulson before the meet for his contributions to Kennedy wrestling as a wrestler and as the Cougar coach from 2003-2012.

JEFFERSON 43, KENNEDY 27

106 – Nolan Hromidko (K) dec. Brenden Baker, 10-3
113 – Kyle Briggs (J) pinned Devin Spaulding, 2:37
120 - Patrick Rashed (J) major dec. Taylor Moss, 13-5
126 - Cody Hensel (J) dec. Nathan Waterhouse, 6-5
132 – JD Ruzicka (K) dec. Michael Moncivais, 3-2
138 – AJ Losch (K) dec. Dylon Pappas, 5-3
145 - Kelly May (J) pinned Austin Winders, 1:56
152 – Shaun Beyer (K) pinned Jontel Ware, 1:50
160 - Luke Sedlacek (J) pinned Jack Nolan, 2:59
170 - Josh Allen (J) pinned Andrew Stastny, 0:54
182 - Drake Allen (J) pinned Nick Polum, 3:03
195 – Jacob Mason (K) pinned Chaney Floyd, 2:39
220 - Dalton Kuehl (J) pinned Chris Moorlet, 3:52
285 – Zack Goodall (K) pinned Dale Deaton, 2:58