KENLY — This time last year, Washington was beginning its chase for the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference Championship. It was a different dynamic Wednesday evening at North Johnston when the Pam Pack entered their first conference match. Instead of vying for the league title, they were defending it.

Even so, they handled business as usual. North Johnston was the site of a tri meet between the hosts, Washington and North Pitt. The Pam Pack handled both Panther foes with a 58-15 win over North Johnston and a 43-27 win over North Pitt.

“You can’t win the whole thing if you don’t start out by winning your first couple,” said head coach Chris Penhollow. “We took a good step toward defending. This is the first time we’re defending as conference champions in a long time here. It’s a little different this year because they’re all gunning for you while, in the past, you’ve been trying to catch whoever is in front of you.”

D.K. Credle, Kenny Castaneda, Andrew Ferguson, Bryant Romero, Marcus Sneed, Jacob Smith and Austin Coward all went undefeated for Washington.

“We went over there — you don’t want to say expecting to win — feeling pretty confident that we could go over there and win both of those,” Penhollow said. “The guys came out and wrestled well. Guys we were counting on to step up and win in certain spots did just that. There are some other guys we’re trying to bring along. Hopefully they’ll keep improving and pick up some wins for us along the way.”

Sneed and Smith are among the wrestlers Penhollow identified as the ones he looks to step up.

“There are certain guys we know that, when they go out there, nine out of 10 times they’re going to get a pin and get six points out of it,” Penhollow said.

Simeon Pope is another that Penhollow mentioned in that group. He won his match against North Johnston via forfeit. He got matched up against one of North Pitt’s better wrestlers in Carson Asby. Pope narrowly lost the match by an 8-7 decision.

North Pitt has one of the conference’s stronger wrestling teams, so winning by a three-match margin is quite the accomplishment. Penhollow said he knew they would have a target on their back as defending champions and it yielded North Pitt’s best shot.

“They shuffled and did a couple of things to try and get themselves an advantage,” he said. “I think we’re just a little deeper with our talent. They’ve got some solid kids at different positions, but in wrestling, you have to shift to be able to come out on top.”

Washington doesn’t jump into its conference schedule all at once. The team now sets its sights on the “Beast of the East” tournament at Croatan. The two-day event will pit the Pam Pack against some of the toughest opponents in the region. Not only will they square off against some stout 2-A competition, but 3-A and 4-A programs will also test them.

“There are a bunch of really good schools coming to this tournament,” Penhollow said. “Several big 4-A schools, some 3-A schools and a couple of 2-As … All really good 2-A schools. You want to get these matches early. You don’t want to just go wrestle some people you can beat up on. You want to get some good competition and get ready for the regionals at the end of the season.”

The Pam Pack’s confidence has been consistently rising, but that’s not a cause for concern to Penhollow.

“They’ve got a pretty good head on their shoulders,” he said. “They don’t get too overconfident. They know that Farmville Central has a good team over there. We’re going to have to go through them to repeat again this year.”