Chippewa wrestlers close home season with win over Crusaders

Codden quickly spun around to made sure his young wrestler corrected his statement to mean “home season.”

Closing the home season with a 76-6 win over the Crusaders Wednesday on parents’ night was a plus for the co-op Chippewas, but they’re not done yet. Following a key win over Muskegon over the weekend, and with a conference meet coming up on Saturday, Codden said his team is peaking.

Unfortunately, Muskegon Catholic Central didn’t bring a full team Wednesday night, and had just six wrestlers.

However, the Chippewas went 5-1 in the contested matches. “Weather they had 15 kids or not, it wouldn’t have mattered,” Codden said.

Caleb Bailey, the most recent Chippewa with 100 wins in his career, picked up a victory in his final match at home, pinning MCC’s Mike Kussick just a little more than a minute into the first round in a 125-pound matchup.

Chippewa Tyler Fogarty (140) needed just 25 seconds to pin Will VanFossen, Tyler Kniss (152) pinned Tony Pearo in 1:07, the same amount of time Travis Bulerski (160) needed to pin Kevin Wickston.

One of the best matches of the night was between Manistee sophomore Nick Carter and MCC’s Stuart Winters at 130 pounds.  Carter dominated the first round and almost landed a pin, but time expired. Carter continued to score in the second round, but couldn’t put Winters away.

Manistee wrestler Nick Carter (top) tries to secure a pin against Muskegon Catholic Central’s Stuart Winters on Wednesday night. Carter went on to win the match. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)

“I couldn’t get him pinned,” Carter said. “I got a little too far up on him and he rolled me over.” Carter did go on to win by a major decision, 16-4.

“That was a great matchup for Nick,” Codden said. “He did really well. He had his hands full. Nick had improved tremendously as a first-year wrestler.”

Picking up unopposed wins for Manistee were Alex Meyers (103), Travis McKenney (112), Kara Gunia (119), Ariel Tomaszewski (135), Luke Fogarty (145), Tyler Knudsen (171), Nathan Rybicki (189) and Raul Torres (heavyweight).

The only loss Manistee suffered was at 215 pounds, as Gabe St. Armour defeated Cody Polcik. But, during the exhibition matches that followed, Bulerski jumped three weight classes to defeat St. Armour.

“That was something for us to say, ‘you got six points on us, but we got them back,’” Codden said. “They took on a solid, Muskegon Catholic team that had good wrestlers on it. I’m glad Muskegon scored, but our kids were looking to make a statement, and I think they made one.