December Wrestling News
Paul Morrill

This year the wrestlers of Onekama and Bear Lake have joined force with Manistee and Manistee Catholic Central. This is a four school co-op. The wrestlers last year were in Division 4, but now have moved up due to the total size of all the schools combined to Division 2. The team has already had a dual and two invitationals. This year our wrestlers consist of senior co-captain Nathan Morrill, senior Jon Peterson, junior Josh Zebulla, two freshmen, Travis McKenney and Raul Torres. Both freshman have experienced mat time and have found it to be very exciting. We have missed Josh Zebulla due to illness and are waiting for his return. We picked up Jordan Deldos from Bear Lake to round out the two schools up here.

 
 In our first time out we headed down to Holton High school for their tournament. The schools there were, Manistee, Holton, Muskegon Orchard View, Morley Stanwood, Freemont, Montague and Shelby. Shelby was very tough. They have a very good team. Since this was a team event you had to have only one loss in order to get a medal.  We did very well against Montague and Orchard View losing only by 13 to Montague and 12 to Orchard View. The matches against Shelby and Morley Stanwood were somewhat further apart on scores. We watched Holton and Shelby go at it for awhile. They were playing for the team championship.  Both of those teams have state qualifiers and it shows in the scores that day. Travis McKenney ended up 2-3 for the day and Nathan Morrill was 3-2.  Jon Peterson had to wrestle one of his own teammates in the X-team match and lost after putting up a hard effort. Manistee posted its first team win against the X-team.
 
Next on the list was a dual meet consisting of Mason County Central and Ludington. Jordan Deldos won both of his matches improving his record to 6-1 on the day. Travis McKenney gained more mat time, but fell twice. Looking at his wrestling style, he needs only a little bit more experience to see the tide turn in his favor. Being the new kid on the block and going up against those with a few years experience can be a little discouraging, but he just keeps going. It will pay off down the road as I have seen this with others.  Nathan Morrill went 1-1 on the day. Raul Torres had an exhibition match and pinned his opponent in 1 minute.  We lost to Mason C.C. by 29 and to Ludington by a score of 42-36. One extra open on our side gave them the victory. We had more pins then they did and if it had come down to that we would have had our second win.
 
This past weekend we traveled to Scottville for the 35th Scottville Optimist Harold Merrill Memorial Tourney.  Teams were from Shelby, Traverse City St. Francis, Manistee, Allendale, and Benzie Central. Our wrestlers from Bear Lake and Onekama did great. Jordan Deldos took on a state qualifier from TCSF in the championship and finished with a silver medal. Travis McKenney earned his first medal by placing fourth. Nathan Morrill went 1-2 losing to the potential champion and 3rd place finisher. Other wrestlers from Manistee also gathered up medals- Caleb Bailey-4th, Mac Schwandt-2nd, Bart Coyle-3rd, Chucky Barron-4th . We have quite a lot of new wrestlers on the team this  year. In the past week alone, we have added 5 more wrestlers!
 
This Wednesday we will be hosting a quad meet. Manistee has only two of these along with one home tourney. Wrestling begins at 6pm on quad nights and at 10am on the tourneys.
12-15-07 Quad at home/ Ludington plus two other TBA
12/15/07 at Farwell Inv. 10am
12/19/07 at Shelby 6pm
1/05/08 Frankfort Inv. 10am-away
1/09/08 Shelby Quad-away
1/12/08 Kingsley Inv. 10am-away
1/16/08 Montague Quad-away
1/19/08 Benzie Inv-10am-away
1/23/08 Super WMAC at Holton-6pm
1/26/08 Reed City Inv-10am-away
1/27/08 USA Folk Style/USGWA –Home
1/30/08 Kingsley Quad-6pm-away
2/2/08  Shelby Inv-10am-away
2/13/08 Team Districts-at Ludington-Man/Lud/MtPleasant
2/16/08 Individual Districts-Gaylord
2/23- The team Regional is slated for Mt Pleasant
 
As you can see we have only a couple of times we will be at home. One is a MHSAA sanctioned event, the other is a USGWA event. Our wrestlers will all belong to the USGWA. Their cards are in the mail. They will be part of the Manistee Wrestling Team.
Please if you can make it-We appreciate all the support!
 
A note to barb-either use walleye25@carrinter.net or shur40k@yahoo.com.
You should probably use the yahoo address. See ya with more news!
 
Paul Morrill
 

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Back Row: Coach Codden, Scorekeeper-Alicia Makowski, Tyler Guenhardt-M, Jordan Deldos-BL, Alex Waterman-M, Raul Torres-O,  Chuck (Chucky) Barron-M, Caleb Bailey-M, Travis Berluski-M, Noah Blauwcamp -M
Front row Kneeling-Jon Peterson-O, Hayden Codden-mgr., Bart Coyle-M, Nathan Morrill-O, Mac Schwandt-M, Travis McKenney-O,   Kellon Petzak-M. (Wrestlers not Pictured are: Robert Hicks-M, Eric Knysz-M, Ged Langham-M, Tim MCDougal-M, Rodney Morin-M, Drew Peters-M, Codie Polcik-M, Trevor Schwandt-M,  Alana Wiltshire-M)