The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Hornets hold off Chelsea, 37-36
Win gives Saline 5-2 final SEC record only a year after going 0-7
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 8, 2007
After another successful weekend, the Saline wrestling team will head into the regular season's final week with more than momentum.
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They will enter with records three games over the .500 mark both overall (18-15) and in the Southeastern Conference (5-2).
Saline sealed the latter with a hard-fought 37-36 home win over Chelsea last Thursday. The victory capped a remarkable turnaround in SEC play for a program that was 0-7 in the conference just last season.
"It's exciting," said the engineer of that turnaround, second-year coach Scott Marvin. "The kids have really bought into the team concept. They know it's not about one match, it's about 14 matches. They're wrestling as a team, for each other, and that's what we want to see."
Saline looked to be in firm control of the Chelsea match early on as a Bulldog void, pins from Brent Greene (at 160 pounds), Jake Feldkamp (189) and Nick Barnett (215) and a major decision win from Ean Pokryfky (171) gave the Hornets a commanding 28-3 lead.
With the meet moving into Saline's less experienced lighter wrestlers, however, Chelsea was able to grab three pins in four matches (Nick O'Neil's pin at 112 the exception) to pull within 34-21. Nate Opaleski stopped the bleeding at 125, toughing out a 3-1 double-overtime win on a two-point reversal in the first half of the second extra period.
Ahead 37-21 with only three classes remaining, Jay Augustyn at 130 needed only to avoid a pin or major decision to clinch the win for Saline. Augustyn spent much of the match on the defensive and trailed 4-0 entering the third period, but grabbed a quick two points to open the period and fought to a 4-2 loss. The result brought Chelsea within 37-24, but even Bulldog pins in each of the final two classes weren't enough and Saline claimed the one-point win.
"We knew they had some older wrestlers that were capable of getting them 12 (points), so we had to be up 13. Opaleski had a nice OT win and then we knew Augustyn had to go six (minutes)," Marvin said afterward. "In the end, Jay did what he had to do. They did a nice job."
The Hornets got plenty more experience in close matches Saturday as they hosted the Saline Super Duals tournament. After four matches of pool play, Saline defeated Riverview 36-34 in their crossover match to finish the tournament with a 4-1 record.
Although Marvin said his team had an "odd" day in which they got results despite not wrestling their best, Saline was arguably even more impressive than their record might indicate.
The Hornets lost their first match by a single point to Fraser, 32-31, before ripping off wins over Divine Child (39-30), defending Super Duals champion Hillsdale (35-33), and Pinckney (57-16). A tiebreaker meant that Saline finished pool play in second behind Hillsdale, who would go on to defeat Ypsilanti for the tournament title — and that Saline had defeated the tourney champion.
Surprisingly, some Saline's best wrestlers on the day were in the lower weight classes. Brent Clink (119) notched Saline's only 5-0 record while Nick O'Neil (4-1, 112), Opaleski (4-1, 125) and Augustyn (3-2, 130) also posted solid records. Barnett finished 4-1 at 215, while Eric Matteson went 4-1 in the heavyweight division subbing for the ill Joey Everett.
Seniors Bryce Rajabian and Aaron Nagy each missed the tournament as well. But with Luke O'Brien back from a long injury absence (and going 3-0 at 189) and Everett, Rajabian and Nagy expected back soon, Marvin believes he will have his full team available in time for either Saturday's SEC meet or next week's districts, which will begin Thursday against Ann Arbor Huron.
"I think we're as ready as we're going to be," he said. "We're just going to take it one meet at a time."
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