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Chips fall in
season-opening quad
Manistee High School’s Tyler Fogarty (right) prepares to
pin a Gladwin wrestler as part of a quad match on Wednesday night at MHS.
(Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)
By MATT WENZEL, Sports Editor, Manistee
News Advocate
MANISTEE — Following his team’s opening-night
performance, two things were clear to Manistee High School wrestling
coach Chris Codden. He’s got the numbers, but lacks depth in experience.
In a little more than a year, the Chippewas have been transformed,
thanks in part to a co-op with Onekama and Bear Lake that’s boosted the
numbers to over 40 wrestlers. But, in Wednesday’s quad against Gladwin
and Chippewa Hills, it was clear that Manistee was still inexperienced
in areas. “Inexperience kind of got us tonight,” Codden said. “We
made some wrong decisions on critical movements. Two years into the
program, I’m happy with the numbers and I’ll be happy when the
experience gets there.”
The Chippewas were looking forward to
using their match against Chippewa Hills as a measuring stick. However,
the Warriors proved to be too much for Manistee and rolled to a 74-6
win.
“We wanted to wrestle Chip Hills to see where we’re at,” Codden said.
“They were a good test for our young wrestlers.” |
Despite the lopsided score, Codden said the
results were actually encouraging. “It’s mistakes that new kids make,”
he said. “It’s so fixable. It’s not like we were out-muscled or
out-conditioned. The younger kids just made mistakes.”
Manistee opened the quad against Gladwin, and stayed close until the
Flying Gs pulled away late for a 54-30 win. Codden said it was a match
his team should have won, but again, inexperience cost the Chippewas
critical points.Manistee’s Caleb
Bailey, who wrestled at 119 pounds, was the only Chippewa to win both of
his matches, with a pair of pins.
Tyler Fogarty (140) won his first match on a pin before losing to
Chippewa Hills on a technical fall due to a cut he sustained, Alex
Meyers (112) won by forfeit before losing in a tiebreaker, Luke Fogarty
(145) won his first match on a pin before losing on one against the
Warriors and Travis Bulerski (171) won on a pin before losing on points.
Also for MHS, Travis McKenney (103), Jessie McIntyre (125), Nick Carter
(130), Cora Brinkley (135), Tyler Kniss (152), Dan Wehrmeister (162),
Nathan Rybicki (189), Cody Polcik (215) and Raul Torres (heavyweight)
all lost both their matches on pins.
Although his team lost both matches, Codden said he was pleased with the
performance and glad his team got experience against tough competition."
I’d rather have the wins, but I’m happy with the effort from everyone,”
he said. “We’re getting there.” |