The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Hornets go 4-1 at tourney
Saline also wraps up SEC slate with solid win over Lincoln
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 7, 2008
After a busy week that saw the Hornets go 5-2 in seven matches, the Saline wrestling team is ready for the postseason, said head coach Scott Marvin.
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"We're really excited," he said, "Our young guys are wrestling hard and wrestling well. We're still a little banged-up, but we're feeling about as good as we're going to get."
Saline started the week with a Southeastern Conference tri-meet Jan. 30 at Tecumseh, where the Hornets fell to the No. 5-ranked host Indians by a 42-19 score, but downed Lincoln 42-26.
On Saturday, Saline played host to the 16-team Saline Super Duals tournament. The Hornets would finish the day 4-1 and in third place, losing only to Grand Rapids Northview by a single point, 30-29, in the tourney semifinals.
"It was a lot of fun," Marvin said of hosting the tournament, which included four new mats in the Saline main gymnasium and two more in the auxiliary gym. "We're hoping to make Saline known as a wrestling school.
"It would have been nice to have won, but the kids really got into it and they were going crazy at the end of the (Grand Rapids Northview) meet."
Saline breezed through pool play by defeating Summit Academy 78-6, Grosse Ile 70-12 and Pinckney 56-20, setting up the semifinal against Northview. After falling behind 21-0, wins by Amir Rad (at 189 pounds), Matt Price (at 215) and Nick Barnett (at heavyweight) brought Saline back to within 21-12 headed into the lighter weights.
Nick O'Neill's win by technical fall at 112 was followed by two more decision wins by Nate Opaleski (125) and Brent Clink (130) to narrow the gap to 27-26. Northview took three points at 135 to move back up 30-26, heading into the final match at 140.
Saline's Jay Augustyn would win the meet with a pin or major decision, and appeared to have his opponent in position for a fall in the second period before the match was stopped for bleeding.
Augustyn would go on to win the match but only 9-3, two points shy of the eight needed for the major decision, and Saline would lose by the final score of 30-29.
"It was great dual meet, very back-and-forth. We came back and got after them," Marvin said. "Jay gave it everything he had. We couldn't have asked him for more."
Saline bounced back to defeat Southgate-Anderson 39-33 in the third-place meet.
Barnett would run his season record to a perfect 34-0 with a 5-0 mark on the day. Opaleski would also go 5-0, with Clink finishing 4-0 and Rad 3-0. Augustyn went 4-1, as did Nick Pataro at 119, Jake Feldkamp at 171, and Matt Price at 215 and heavyweight.
Josh McQueer went 3-2 at 145 and 152, filling in for the injured Will Baiocco, and Luke Hoepfinger won his first non-void varsity match at 160.
In Tecumseh, Feldkamp, Rad, Barnett (at 215), Price (285) and O'Neill earned wins against the Indians, but the bigger story might have been the victory over Lincoln. With the win, Saline has now defeated all three of its potential opponents at next Thursday's team district tournament, which Saline will host.
"If that doesn't give us some confidence, I don't know what would," Marvin said. "But we're not taking anyone lightly. If one or two matches against Pioneer or Lincoln go the other way, it's a very different meet. We're not going to take anything for granted."
Wins from Pataro (119), Clink (130) and Jimmy Smyrnis (135), and a Lincoln void at 125, put Saline up 18-3 early against the Railsplitters. But a Hornet void at 152 helped Lincoln into an 18-18 tie and then a 21-18 lead entering the 171-pound match.
But Feldkamp earned a first-period fall to stop the bleeding and it was almost all Saline from there as Rad, Price and Barnett earned back-to-back-to-back pins at 189, 215 and 285 to clinch the win.
The victory finished Saline's SEC dual meet season at 5-3. The Hornets will look to further cement their standing in the conference at this weekend's SEC tournament.
"Obviously, we want to win, but realistically we're not quite up to Bedford or Tecumseh yet," Marvin said. "But we would definitely like to take third and get ourselves in there ahead of everyone else. That's the goal."
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