Chippewa Wrestlers Top
Mason County Central & Ludington

SCOTTVILLE — Staff Report from Manistee News Advocate —  With Wednesday’s quad at Mason County Central, the Manistee High School wrestling team hit the two-week mark of the season.  But, after defeating both Mason County Central and Ludington, Chippewa coach Chris Codden said his team will be hard pressed to put together a bigger night the rest of the season. “Mason County was the cake and Ludington was the icing,” Codden said. “It couldn’t have gotten any better.”

The Chippewas opened the night with a 43-36 win over the host Spartans. “As far as I know, this is the first time Manistee has ever beat Scottville,” Codden said. “It was a tremendous victory.”

Entering the final match against MCC, Manistee held a slim lead at 37-36. Chippewa Cody Polcik, wrestling at 215 pounds, stepped up and won on a pin to put Manistee over the top.

“He was wrestling one of the better kids Mason County had,” Codden said. “Don’t ask me how, but he pulled it out of his hat.”

Codden said that because Polcik may have broke his thumb pulling out the win, he didn’t wrestle against Ludington. But that didn’t change how he was received by his teammates.  “He was the hero,” Codden said.  Polcik’s win capped a number of highlights in the Chippewas’ victory over the Spartans.

At 140 pounds, Tyler Fogarty won on a superior decision (eight points or more) against MCC’s Brandon Quinn. “He couldn’t have wrestled any better,” Codden said of Fogarty’s 15-7 win.  Luke Fogarty also impressed his coach and teammates by pinning his opponent in less than a minute.

Riding high after the win over the Spartans, Manistee defeated Ludington by a more comfortable margin of 51-30.

On the night, Alex Meyers (103), Caleb Bailey (119), Tyler Fogarty (140), Luke Fogarty (140/152) and Travis Bulerski (160) were all undefeated at 2-0.

Dakota Girard (135) went 1-1 while picking up a first varsity win, while Nick Carter (125), Trevor Schwandt (171), Nathan Rybicki (189) and Raul Torres (heavyweight) all went 1-1.

Manistee’s Travis Bulerski (right) also finished 2-0 in the quad. (Ron Muszynski / Special to the News Advocate)

Cody Edwards (145) went 1-0 while picking up a first varsity win, Alex Waterman and Jon Hujiev (152) were both 0-1, and Brian Fisk (112) and Tucker Bruce (130) both finished 0-2.  However, even those who lost were able to contribute to Manistee’s success by going the distance.

“I told them, ‘don’t get pinned,’” Codden said of his younger wrestlers. “They either won or took Mason County or Ludington to the third period — 50 percent of the time they didn’t get pinned. I’ll take those percentages.”

Manistee is now off until Jan. 3, but considering some of their wrestlers are a little banged up, the break isn’t all bad. “It’s a good time to recuperate,” Codden said.