News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Noah Connon (right) grapples with Gaylord’s Aurelius Krumholz during a heavyweight wrestling match on Wednesday at Alpena High School.

Being shorthanded was a huge understatement for the Alpena High wrestling team on Wednesday.

The Wildcats competed with just three wrestlers as they took on Gaylord, while hosting the Blue Devils and Petoskey.

“It sucks. It’s almost embarrassing a little bit to watch us step up and we have 12 people sitting on the sidelines and three people can only wrestle. It sucks not having people be able to wrestle and compete with these teams,” Alpena coach Matt Hepburn said. “We compete individually, but when you look at the scoreboard, we’re just getting dominated and it’s really tough.”

Alpena was represented on the mat by Noah Connon (285), Wyatt Romero (189) and Matt Barrett (152).

The remaining Wildcats were unable to compete due to injury, eligibility issues and coaches decision.

Barrett and Romero each suffered a tough loss as Barrett was pinned by Gaylord’s Cody Stark and Romero was pinned by the Blue Devils’ Cade Foster.

The bright spot for Alpena was senior Noah Connon who continues to impress as he defeated Aurelius Krumholz 7-2 via minor decision.

“As a program we have to get on our feet and get better takedowns and do better work on our feet. We’re constantly just sitting back waiting for the other guys and right now it’s not getting the job done,” Hepburn said. “Our heavyweight pulled through with a big win. He’s dominant and has been battling with some of the best all season and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does the rest of the way.”

Connon improved to 27-3 on the year and is closing in on 100 career wins.

Hepburn anticipates Connon will earn his 100th win around district time and if Connon is able to reach the impressive milestone, he will be just the 16th wrestler in Alpena High School history to earn 100 career wins and would be the first since 2014.

“The plus side with us being shorthanded is everyone gets a lot of one-on-one time. We have four coaches and it really helps because we can get a lot of individual time with the kids,” Hepburn said. “It is a big deal for Noah because it is really hard to get 100 wins now after the matches allowed were cut down, so there’s not as many matches per year. It’s good for him, especially because his freshman year he really didn’t have too many wins and just to see how much he’s improved is special. It will be a special occasion because it’s a lot of wins and there is only a few on our board for a reason.”