The Saline Reporter
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Sweet Sweep
Hornets take down Chelsea, Dexter
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 24, 2008
The momentum from the Saline wrestling team's strong start to 2008 hasn't slowed down yet.
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Saline swept a Southeastern Conference tri-meet against Chelsea and Dexter at home Jan. 17, turning away the Bulldogs 43-27 and the Dreadnaughts 36-28.
The Hornets' success continued on Saturday as a partial squad at the Jackson Northwest Invitational placed nine Saline wrestlers in sixth or better in their individual brackets, with first-place senior Nick Barnett remaining undefeated and their team points total good for eighth out of 12 teams.
"Our kids are wrestling hard and battling every time, even if they're overmatched, and that's all I can ask for," said Saline head coach Scott Marvin. "All three teams (at the tri-meet) were fairly evenly matched. So, it was nice to come out of it with two wins."
The tri-meet wins pushed Saline's overall record to17-8 and its Southeastern Conference record to 4-2 on the season.
The Hornets opened against Chelsea and voided the opening class at 135 pounds. But freshman Sam Hepler, wrestling up a class at 140, made sure Saline didn't fall into too deep a hole by producing a surprising pin 51 seconds into the third period, tying the meet at six.
"That was a huge win," Marvin said. "It got us going and things snowballed from there."
Chris Endicott won a 9-1 major decision at 145 to put Saline up 10-6 and the Hornets wouldn't trail again. Pins by Will Baiocco (152) and Nick Barnett (285) and decision wins by Amir Rad (189), Matt Price (215) and Nick O'Neill (112) built Saline's lead to 32-21 with three classes to go.
Sophomore Nick Pataro then clinched the win with second-period pin at 119. Brent Clink then added another pin at 130 to stretch the final margin to 16.
Things weren't quite so comfortable for Saline against the Dreadnaughts, though the Hornets won six of the meet's first eight classes to build a 27-9 advantage. Marvin moved each of his wrestlers between 152 and 285 up a class, allowing Luke Hoepfinger to pick up a key Dexter void at 171 without sacrificing many points on the mat.
Endicott (152) and Baiocco (160) each grabbed pins, while Rad (215) and Barnett (285) won decisions. Ryan O'Sullivan also won at 103 to give Saline their largest lead.
"We were able to bump around some guys and get some wins that really helped us," Marvin said. "We knew they had some really good guys coming up, so we needed the cushion."
That proved to be the case as a pin, Saline void (at 125), and narrow 5-4 decision against Pataro trimmed the lead to 27-24.
But Nate Opaleski stopped the bleeding with a 4-0 decision at 130 and Brent Clink's reversal-and-pin 3:38 into his match at 135 — after Clink trailed 5-0 entering the second period — pushed the edge back to 36-24. With only one class remaining, Clink's win sealed the Saline victory.
"If he doesn't win there, we probably lose the meet," Marvin said. "It was real, real big for us and everyone was excited for him."
At Jackson Northwest, Barnett improved to 26-0 on the season by winning the final of the 215 bracket 3-2 in double overtime.
"He's just a smart wrestler," Marvin said of Barnett's success. "We had a state qualifier at 215 last year in (Bryce) Rajabian, who was aggressive and always looking for a takedown, and Barnett's the total opposite. He's always smart about his positioning and where he is on the mat. It's always a decision or a pin, no technical falls or major decisions. There's no in-between and a lot of his matches have gone into overtime.
"But he's in great shape and it's working for him. It's tough on me," Marvin said with a laugh, "but that's his style and we're going to try and ride it to the state tournament."
Other placers at Jackson included O'Sullivan (three wins, fifth at 103), Pataro (one win, sixth at 119), Opaleski (three wins, fifth at 125), Baiocco (three wins, including two upsets of higher-seeded wrestlers, for fourth at 152), Rad (three wins, third at 189), Adam Davis (one win, sixth at 189), Price (two wins, fourth at 215), and Eric Matteson (two wins, fourth at 285).
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