The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hornet wrestlers shake off loss to Tecumseh
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 25, 2007
Even the loss of the Saline wrestling team's perfect Southeastern Conference record couldn't keep the rapidly-improving Hornets from having a successful weekend.
Advertisement
Thursday night at Tecumseh, Saline suffered its first SEC loss of the season, falling 51-16 to the SEC favorite Indians. The defeat dropped Saline to 13-13 overall and 4-1 in conference play.
But head coach Scott Marvin was upbeat regardless, pointing out that after winning only two weight classes against the Indians in 2006, this time the Hornets took four from last year's Division 2 state semifinalist.
Heavyweight Joey Everett, Bryce Rajabian at 215 pounds, Ean Pokryfy at 171 and Nate Opaleski at 125 all won their matches. Sophomores Jay Augustyn and Will Baiocco were two of several Saline wrestlers who might not have won their match, but earned praise from Marvin for their competitiveness.
"When you look for positives, we won four matches," Marvin said, "but even when we didn't win, we had some exceptional matches. The young guys competed really hard."
Two weekend tournaments allowed the Hornets to build on the positives from the Tecumseh meet. Five Saline wrestlers competed at the Jackson Northwest individual tournament Saturday, with all five placing fourth or better.
In the heavyweight division, Everett saw a long winning streak snapped in the final but finished as runner-up. Brent Greene tied for third at 160, Opaleski claimed third at 125, and Pokryfky finished fourth in the 171 bracket.
But Rajabian had the biggest day for the Hornets, taking first place at 215 and being named the outstanding wrestler of the tournament.
The newfound depth of the Saline program was on display in Temperance Saturday, where the Hornets' varsity "B" and JV wrestlers took first place in the Bedford JV tournament.
Nick Barnett at 215, Amir Rad also at 215, Augustyn at 130 and Eric Madison in the heavyweight class all took the top spot in their respective brackets as Saline brought home the championship trophy.
"It was nice for some of those guys to get out and wrestle kids their own age and get a couple of wins after going up against the varsity all season," Marvin said. "They really wrestled well."
The Hornets will face a stiff test Thursday on the road at Bedford, the SEC's other wrestling power and also a 2006 state semifinalist. But Marvin says at this point he's less concerned with whether the Hornets grab a victory than whether his team continues its push toward making some noise at the league and district meets later on.
"There's still some distance there, a gap that we're trying to close," he said of Bedford. "But they think they can win. That's what you want.
"We also want to set ourselves up so that we peak at the end of the season."
Saline's next home meet will be against Chelsea 6 p.m. Thursday.
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
