Late pin
lifts Chips past Rangers
By MATT WENZEL, Manistee News Advocate
Sports Editor
Published: Thursday, January 7, 2010
MANISTEE — In wrestling, each match is
worth the same number of points and of equal importance to the team.
But when the last match determines who wins and who loses, it tends to
stand out even more.
So with Manistee clinging to a three-point lead heading into the final
match against Manton Wednesday night, the pressure was on Chippewa
junior Noah Blauwkamp.
He delivered.
In the heavyweight class, Blauwkamp pinned
Eric Stowell to give the Chippewas a 45-36 win in a Mid-Michigan
Wrestling Conference match.
“It was a little bit of pressure,” Blauwkamp said with a smile being
congratulated by his teammates. “I used my second wind.
“Everyone did pretty good and everyone did what they’re supposed to do.”
Manistee has three wrestlers who can fill in the heavyweight class, but
coach Chris Codden felt comfortable with his choice.
“This is a lot of pressure for a kid to know that it’s his match that’s
either going to win or lose the conference match,” he said. “Noah has
been wrestling for a couple years and I know the pressure doesn’t affect
him. In fact, it does the opposite. Noah knew it was the last match and
basically didn’t care, he just wanted to go out and beat the kid.
“I told him ‘I want you to wrestle the best you can. Win or lose I’m
going to be happy because I know you’ll give me 100 percent effort.’ He
went out there and gave us 1,000 percent effort. I was pretty happy with
Noah. It was a great match.” |
Manistee freshman Haydon
Codden (top) works to pin Manton’s Aaron Everett during a 125-pound
match on Wednesday night at MHS. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)
It wasn’t the only good one either.
At 135 pounds, Manistee’s Nic Carter edged Manton’s Stacey Baron 6-0
after three tough periods.
“She’s not a slouch, nor is she a slouch to girls wrestling,” Codden
said of Baron. “She’s a very tough competitor. You can’t look at gender.
You start thinking that way and you end up losing.”
That was the only match that didn’t end in pin, while Manton was open at
four weights which resulted in wins for Travis McKenney (112), Tucker
Bruce (140), Lane Gancarz (145) and Brenna Ramirez (171).
“You have to have a good foundation and have different kids in different
spots,” Codden said of the 24 points the Rangers forfeited. “We still
have good numbers and have several kids in each weight class.”
Also winning by pin for Manistee were Alex Meyers (103) and Haydon
Codden (125), while David Engstrom (119), Brian Fisk (130), Nate Leino-Jones
(152), Zach Nezki (160), Tyler Knudsen (189) and Alex Waterman (215) all
lost by pin.
Codden said his team was upset by the fact that the Rangers didn’t
arrive at MHS until 20 minutes before the match was supposed to start.
“They were fired up,” Codden said. “They were really mad they showed up
late. It really upset the kids because they thought it was
disrespectful. They thought they were just going to walk in here and
walk all over us. Of course I used that to fuel the fire.” |