Bound for
the state finals
Manistee Wrestling Team moving on
By MATT WENZEL Manistee News Advocate Sports
Editor
Published: Thursday, April
30, 2009
MANISTEE — The high school wrestling
season has been over for almost two months, but some Manistee wrestlers
are just reaching the peak of competition.
The Manistee Wrestling Team will compete in the Michigan USA Wrestling
state championships this weekend, following last weekend’s regional at
Manistee Middle School.
“Twenty-five kids put in, 25 kids qualified for states,” said Manistee
coach Chris Codden. “We had 115 wrestlers show up, plus our kids. We
probably had just under 500 people attend at the middle school. It was
an awesome showing.”
While Codden is unsure of the total number of Manistee wrestlers that
will make the trip, he said there’s a number of kids who are definitely
going.
“Out of the 25 who qualified, 10 of them
actually signed up to go to state finals,” he said. “Out of the 10, four
of them had the flu.”
The state finals, which encompass Greco-Roman, Freestyle and Women’s
wrestling, are held at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek from today through
Sunday. The Manistee wrestlers span in age from 4 to 15.
The lone wrestler heading to the state finals with varsity experience
for the Chippewas is Alex Meyers.
“He wrestled (varsity) at 103 pounds, but he was 89, 90, 91 (pounds),”
Codden said. “He was giving up 10 pounds almost every match. He’s now
wrestling at 91 pounds, where he does really well. So, I’m looking for a
lot from him.”
Codden’s son, Haydon Codden, an eighth grader, will also be heading to
the state finals after setting the middle school record for wins.
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Manistee Wrestling Team
members practice Thursday at Manistee High School. (Matt Wenzel/News
Advocate)
Codden said he’s also sure he’ll be taking
sixth-grader Jake Williams, fifth-graders Andrew Puckett and Braden
Hagen, fourth-grader Austin Peterson and first-grader William Gibson. He
said Chase Reid, Brady Reid and Drake Reid all qualified for the state
finals but had the flu, so he’s not sure if they’re going to make the
trip.
If Codden has all wrestlers there, he knows what the expectations are.
“Ten kids down, and 10 kids take one through four I hope,” he said.
Those who finish in the top four spots
this weekend qualify for the USA Wrestling Central Regionals in
Columbus, Ohio, May 22-24.
The Manistee High School wrestling team expanded over the last two
seasons with a new co-op that includes Onekama and Bear Lake. Codden
serves as the varsity, middle school and Manistee Wrestling Team coach,
and was also selected as the Michigan USA Wrestling Kids Director over
the winter.
By coaching local wrestlers of all ages, Codden has seen the impact the
younger levels can have on the varsity team, which is one reason why the
club’s name was changed. “At one point we were West Michigan Wrestling
then MRA and whatever, but basically what’s happened over time as being
the varsity coach and middle school coach, it’s somewhat of an
attrition,” he said. “Everything is blending in and working its way up.” |