Ozark 190-pounder Johnny Williams was his own worst critic while evaluating his pin of Kickapoo’s Jonathan Vargas on Tuesday.
Williams won by fall in 5:51 in the Tigers’ 41-36 dual loss to the Chiefs. Earlier in the night, Ozark downed Branson 40-29.
Williams wasn’t happy with himself that he had to come back from a 7-1 deficit against Vargas.
“I didn't wrestle like I should have,” he said. “it was closer than it should have been. It should not have been anywhere near that close.”
Vargas caught Williams off guard in the opening period and early in the second period. Vargas collected a pair of takedowns and a near fall.
“He wasn't wrestling traditionally like the guys I wrestle against,” Williams said. “He was wrestling funky and I was not in it at first. That's on me, I need to fix it and come back and dominate.”
Williams began to assert himself late in the second period and got an escape just before time ran out to tie things up at 7 entering the third period. From there, it was all Williams, as his conditioning was obviously superior. It was just a question of whether he was going to get the pin or not.
“He started just laying on the mat. I knew he was going to stall the rest of the time,” Williams said. “Every time I've wrestled him he's folded with the cradles. Once I got on top, it was hard to turn him, but I got it done.
"I did what Ozark does, I won the third period,” he added. “But it shouldn't have had to come down to that. I should have had it won in the first period.”
Williams has won eight straight to up his record to 36-9.
Ozark also received pins against Kickapoo from Keaton Hurst (132), Talyn Van Horn (150) and Dayton Moison (157).
Moison had the quickest pin of the night at :15 versus the Chiefs’ Tate Kawamoto-Takeshita.
The Tigers’ pins against Branson came from Hurst, Williams, Logan Luder (126) and Eian McCracken (150).
In a high-quality match at 144, Ozark’s Caden Harrington lost 8-7 to Branson’s BJ Storment. Harrmington fell to 29-11, while Storment improved to 19-17.
The double dual was Ozark’s only night at home this season.
“I’m happy we got to stay home to wrestle at least once,” Hurst said. “We have a lot of supporters and amazing parents.”
Ozark is idle until taking part in Class 4 District 3 at Ray-Pec on Feb. 16-17. Williams says the Tigers will make good use of their practice time over the next two weeks.
“It's going to be full of stuff we need to do,” Williams said. “We’ll get some much-needed rest time and we'll get some much-needed work done.”
