Manistee Wrestlers
Take Fifth
Manistee News Advocate
Staff Report 1/31/09
MONTAGUE
— The Manistee High School wrestling team went into Saturday’s meet at
Montague anticipating an individual tournament.
As it turned out, it was a team
competition.
The co-op Chippewas didn’t seem
bothered by the different format as they took fifth place out of 10
teams.
Manistee finished 3-2, with wins
over Wyoming Godwin Heights, Muskegon and Holton.
“It was probably the best showing
before districts — I couldn’t have been happier,” said Manistee coach
Chris Codden. “Every team we saw this weekend was solid.”
The Chippewas were particularly
pleased with a win over Muskegon, which was decided on criteria after
the teams finished tied at 42.
“They’re a pretty tough team,”
Codden said of the Big Reds. “That’s probably the biggest win we’ve had
as a team to date. That was a big deal to the kids.”
A number of Chippewas put up
strong performances, led by Tyler Fogarty (140/145), who went
5-0, Alex Meyers (103), who went 3-0, and
Luke Fogarty (145/152), Travis Bulerski (160/171) and Cody Polcik
(215), who all finished 4-1.
Manistee opened the day with a
72-12 win over Godwin Heights, then lost to Rogers Heights (65-18) and
fell short against Montague (48-34).
“The kids came out after that
Montague match and they were pretty mad,” Codden said. |
The Chippewas made the best of their
anger by using it to beat Muskegon. Manistee held a 42-30 lead coming
down to the last two weight classes (112/119), which Codden voided due
to injury. So, the match had to be judged on criteria, which was tied
all the way to the fifth category.
“Let’s just say I crossed my fingers
and hoped to God that nobody had got a team warning or penalty point,
because that would have cost us the match,” Codden said. “I give my kids
a lot of credit. They never got a caution or a warning — it was a
perfect match.”
The No. 5 criteria was most first
takedown points, which Manistee edged Muskegon on, 5-4.
From there, Manistee, which
finished third in its pool, wrestled Holton for fifth place. While the
Red Devils would have edged the Chippewas by five points, they used an
ineligible wrestler who had already competed at the junior varsity
level. So, Holton was forced to forfeit, giving Manistee an 84-0 win.
Kara Gunia (119/125), Nick Carter
(125/130) and Raul Torres (heavyweight) all finished 3-2, Tyler
Knudsen (171) went 2-1, while Travis McKenney (103/112), Tucker
Bruce (130/145), Ariel Tomaszewski (135/140), Tyler Kniss (152/160) and
Nathan Rybicki (189) all finished 2-3.
Some of the other Manistee
wrestlers either split time between teams, or filled in at empty spots
on others to get some more mat time.
Alex Waterman went 3-2, Dan
Wehrmeister went 2-2, Drew Peters, Cody Edwards, and Zach Paine all
finished 0-1, while Dakota Girard finished 0-5.
“I took 26 kids and they all got
mat time,” Codden said.
The Chippewas will next be in
action on Wednesday when they host Muskegon Catholic Central. It’s the
third and final home meet of the season for Manistee, and will serve as
parents’ night as well as fan appreciation night, meaning it’s free to
attend. |