The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Wrestlers go 4-1, take strong third at tourney
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 10, 2008
The Saline wrestling team didn't waste much time getting 2008 headed in the right direction.
Advertisement
The Hornets went 4-1 and took third at the L'Anse Creuse Invitational Saturday, behind only the host team and state power Gaylord. Saline head coach Scott Marvin said that the Hornets' performance, highlighted by a 32-31 win over Livonia-Stevenson in the third-place match, was one of their strongest ones to date this season.
"It was exciting," Marvin said. "I just think our kids are working hard in practice and doing the things they've been asked to do ... We were more in shape coming out of the break than some of the other teams."
The tournament started brightly for Saline as the Hornets' lighter wrestlers "surprised" Plymouth-Salem, Marvin said, by winning four of the meet's first six classes. Ryan O'Sullivan (103 pounds), Nick O'Neill (112), Nate Opaleski (125), and Brent Clink (135) all won decisions to give the Hornets a 13-8 advantage before Saline's experience at the heavier weights paid off in a 22-0 run to close the meet, giving Saline the 38-21 win.
"It was a tough dual meet and a good win," Marvin said. "Those early wins set the tone for the whole day."
Saline would go on to have eight wrestlers win three matches or more, including Nick Barnett at 215, who stayed undefeated on the season with a 5-0 record. O'Neill matched him with a 5-0 record, while Eric Matteson won all three of his matches at heavyweight after recently recovering from injury.
Posting 4-1 records were Opaleski at 125, Will Baiocco at 152 and 160, Jake Feldkamp at 171, and Amir Rad at 189. O'Sullivan finished 3-2, including a pin and technical fall.
Those wins helped push Saline to two fairly comfortable wins over Port Huron, 51-27, and Utica, 54-21, for a 3-1 record in pool play despite their 54-15 loss to Gaylord.
That set up the "crossover" dual for third against Stevenson. Baiocco would be the only Hornet to win over the first five classes (135, 140, 145, 152, and 160), leaving Saline in a 22-3 hole. But Feldkamp's win by technical fall got the Hornets on track and after a tight 3-2 win in overtime by Barnett, back-to-back-pins by Matteson and O'Sullivan brought Saline within 25-23.
O'Neill's win by decision put Saline ahead by a point, Nick Pataro (at 112) pushed the lead to four with another decision, and Opaleski sealed the victory by stretching the lead to seven with only one class remaining with the Hornets' third straight decision win.
Marvin said the big day combined with the increasing health and fewer lineup issues of his team (after recently voiding two classes against Adrian in a narrow defeat, Saline did not void Saturday) meant that his team was poised to continue moving forward as the season progresses.
"We've got a lot of wrestling ahead of us, especially in February," he said. "That's the best part of the season. We feel like we're in a good spot right now."
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
Staff Blog, "Inside The Newsroom"
TOP JOBS
