Manistee’s Bailey wrestles
his way to regionals

WEST BRANCH — Manistee senior co-captain Caleb Bailey earned a spot at regionals after a fourth place finish at 119 pounds in the individual district tournament at Ogemaw Heights Saturday.

“He’s a machine,” Manistee coach Chris Codden said of Bailey. “I never have to worry about Caleb’s focus. He’s always totally focused, and there’s no one that can take that away from him.”

Out of Manistee’s 14 wrestlers competing in the 16-team tournament, Bailey (119) and Tyler Fogarty (140) were seeded fifth, while Alex Meyers (103), Travis Bulerski (171), Nathan Rybicki (189) and Raul Torres (heavyweight) were all seeded seventh.

Also wrestling for Manistee was Travis McKenney (112), Nick Carter (125), Tucker Bruce (135), Luke Fogarty (145), Cody Edwards (152), Tyler Kniss (160), Tyler Knudsen (171) and Cody Polcik (215).

The first round of the tournament was set up in a do-or-die single elimination format.

Codden was happy with his each of his wrestlers 100 percent effort against what he referred to as “unbelievable competition” faced in the tournament.

The six Manistee wrestlers to survive single-elimination in the first round were Meyers, Bailey, Bulerski, Rybicki, Polcik and Torres.

As five of the six fell just short of reaching the final round, Bailey was able to capture fourth place as well as a trip to regionals.

“He has a week of practice,” Codden said. “I’ll be working with him on conditioning to get ready for regionals.”

Regional competition will take place next Saturday in Mount Pleasant, starting at 9 a.m.