The final match of the regular season saw the Bainbridge High varsity wrestling team suffer a disappointing defeat at the hands of the visiting Roosevelt Rough Riders Tuesday.

Sped along by three double forfeits (106-, 120- and 285-pounds), three Spartan forfeit wins and four by Roosevelt, the meet ended with BHS behind 42-18 after getting to hit the mat in only four actual bouts.

Spartan sophomore Oleg Maguire was edged out in a 12-11 decision win by Eli Teagle in the 132-pound face-off.

Roosevelt’s Jack McAlpin pinned Pedro Delfino in 1:35 to claim the 145-pound match.

Scrappy Spartan junior Nate Michaels was bested in an 11-9 decision by Drew Weinberger in the 152-pound bracket.

Finally, Mac Shelbert was pinned in 32 seconds by RHS’ Spear Kajumulo (182-pounds).

Dispiriting as the finale might have been, both BHS Head Coach Dan Pippinger and team captain Hague Bush said the night had not been without praiseworthy highlights. Maguire and Michaels, they agreed, had both had particularly excellent matches and were looking primed for the upcoming postseason tournaments.

“They wrestled hard,” the coach said. “They made mistakes and it wasn’t necessarily that the opponent was technically better, it was that the opponent took advantage of little mistakes that we can correct. It’s within our power. It’s nothing that they did that’s getting in the way of our success.”

Bush concurred.

“Those were the two most exciting matches tonight,” he said. “This is the best I’ve seen both of them wrestle for a while.”

The inexperienced, sparsely manned Spartan team (5-5, overall and 4-5 in conference) has been battling uphill all season with a roster made up primarily of green underclassmen.

Bush, the only senior, did not in fact get to wrestle at Tuesday’s Senior Night meet because of a lingering knee injury acquired in an overenthusiastic practice session. He did though expect to be fit to fight in time for the Metro League Tournament at Eastside Catholic High School Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4.

“It shouldn’t stop me from districts and regionals,” Bush said. “I initially tried to wrestle with it during the Island Invite, that made it a lot worse. So this period of absence has really helped me. Warmups are a lot easier than they have been in the previous weeks.”

Bush, who managed an admirable showing at state last year, was recognized prior to the meet with Roosevelt. The coach announced to the gathered crowd of fans and wrestlers that the senior Spartan had just this very week learned that he’d received the official nomination he’d sought from Congressman Derek Kilmer to attend the United States Military Academy, West Point, next year where he plans to major in engineering.

It had been an odd experience, Bush said, looking back on being the only senior on the team.

“In previous years we’ve always had a group of seniors to lead us,” he said. “It’s strange teaching. Just about half our team is new people, so there’s a learning curve involved, definitely.”

The adjective that arises most often when anyone talks about Bush, coach or teammate, seems to be “quiet”. He’s a reserved guy, very intentional.

“I’d like to consider myself stoic,” Bush said. “I have those people that I consider partners and colleagues, in wrestling and academics, and those people I’m not shy or untalkative at all with, but I don’t feel the need to talk to everybody.”

Bush was accompanied Tuesday by his father and grandmother. The nontraditional family dynamics at home had been a great asset to him during his senior year, he said.

“The weird household has definitely helped me in the long run,” Bush laughed. “[I was] treated as an adult, no matter what my age, and it’s really helped me with time management, money management.”

Despite his month of injuries, Pippinger said Bush has continued to lead the squad very effectively.

“It’s hard to lead when you can’t be out in front,” the coach said. “But everybody knows and they respect that he’s been through it and he knows what’s going on.”

Regarding the rest of the roster, Pippinger said that even taking into account the team’s overall inexperience, things could be going better for the Spartans.

“I think we’d like it to be going better at this point and that takes 100 percent, all-out commitment. And most of these kids don’t know how to give that yet,” he said.

“It’s just a matter of trying to continue to coach them up and help them understand what it actually takes to become successful at this sport, because there’s no easy way to do this. It’s just toughness and commitment and the willingness to suffer and put yourself in positions that will help you be successful, and you have to work hard to get those positions.

“The other guy’s working hard to get what he wants,” he added. “If you don’t work harder than him to get what you want you’re not going to get it.”

Logging hours on the mat and accumulating experience against a wide variety of opponents of various skill levels, the coach said, is a school of decidedly hard knocks, but it’s the only road to success in wrestling and one that will reap definite rewards for those budding grapplers who stick with the sport.

“We’re looking at what these guys decide they want to do from here,” Pippinger said. “We’ve got three more weeks of competition and we had those couple real close matches and we got two days to close the gap. That can happen. You learn from tonight and those kids that were that close, we need to correct a few of those little things that they didn’t get and bring that intensity level up a little higher and they’re right there.”