The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Wrestlers top '06 victory total
Two wins at Richmond tourney give Saline eight on season
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 11, 2007
At a glance, there doesn't seem to be too much to celebrate in Saline's 2-3 record at last Saturday's Richmond Invitational.
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But there are, in fact, several reasons for coach Scott Marvin and his Hornets to be — if not ecstatic — happy with their weekend's work.
For starters, after finishing 7-22 a season ago, the two wins boosted Saline's 2006-2007 record thus far to 8-11, which is already one win better with 14 more regular season matches to play.
Second, despite a continued dearth of healthy bodies exacerbated by holiday commitments and illness, Saline was able to place six wrestlers in "medallist" spots, and recovered from a tough start to beat solid teams in Royal Oak Kimball (39-32) and Utica (36-28).
The Hornets placed sixth out of 10 teams.
"It was a good, hard day of wrestling," Marvin said. "We would have liked to have gone at least 3-2. There were a couple of dual meets we had a chance to win. But we were limited, with kids being sick or injured. With the kids that we put together, we did alright."
Saline fell to defending Division 3 state champion Richmond 60-12 in the tourney opener, followed by a 54-24 loss to Port Huron. The Hornets then responded with their two wins before finishing with a 45-27 loss to Grosse Pointe North.
Perhaps the high point of the day, Marvin said, was the big win by Saline heavyweight Joey Everett over Port Huron's Aaron Robinson, the top-ranked heavyweight in Division 1. Their match went scoreless into the third period before Everett reversed and pinned Robinson for the win.
Everett finished the day at 4-0 and received gold medal honors for his efforts.
"He had a very good day, especially coming out of the holiday break," Marvin said.
Everett had company from Saline in the undefeated ranks as Bryce Rajabian went a perfect 4-0 wrestling at 215 and also received a gold medal.
Saline silver medallists included Ean Pokryfky, who went 4-1 at 171/189, and Nate Opalski, who went 4-1, as well at 125.
Will Baiocco, at 152, and Brent Greene each had strong 3-2 records on the day and finished as bronze medallists.
The performances at Richmond boosted the records of several of Saline's top wrestlers. Everett now stands at 14-1, Opaleski at 15-8, Pokryfky at 17-7 and Rajabian at 10-1 since returning from injury.
Unfortunately for Saline, Rajabian is currently in the same weight class as 11-4 Nick Barnett, also one of the team's best wrestlers. Marvin hopes to have Rajabian slide to the 189 class in the future
"That hurts us as a team," he said, "when one of our best wrestlers has to sit on the bench."
Saline will put its perfect 3-0 conference record on the line Thursday night when the team travels to face Ann Arbor Pioneer.
"It's going to be a good match," Marvin said. "We're going to have to have some young guys pull out some wins for us."
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be reached at 429-7380 or.
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