The Saline Reporter
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Hornets take 3rd at SEC meet
District showdowns with Huron, possibly Pioneer on Thursday
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 15, 2007
On one hand, head coach Scott Marvin was pleased with the Saline wrestling team's third-place finish at last Saturday's Southeastern Conference meet.
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"We were third place in the dual meet standings," he said, referring to the Hornets 5-2 SEC season behind only Bedford and Tecumseh. "So, it was nice to be able to sustain that, what we'd established, and finish third overall in the tournament."
On the other hand, while Marvin wasn't expecting a top-two finish — Bedford and Tecumseh took those spots as expected — he said he was expecting more energy than he saw from his "sluggish" team at the meet, or in two midweek dual meet losses to South Lyon (32-27) and state No. 5 overall Dundee (53-12).
"It just felt like we wrestled a little down," Marvin said. "We have to make sure we're a little more ready when we come out on Thursday."
Saline will host the district tournament Thursday, facing Ann Arbor Huron in the first round and potentially taking on the winner of the Ann Arbor Pioneer-Lincoln match in the other semifinal. One of the disappointments of the league meet for Marvin was his wrestlers' performance in head-to-head matches with Pioneer, which he hopes will not prove to be a preview of things to come if the two teams meet in Thursday's final.
"We lost a few matches in classes where we had beaten them before," Marvin said, making note of the Hornets' dual meet win over the Pioneers early in the season. "Hopefully, we learned that just because you've beaten someone once doesn't mean you'll beat them again."
Despite the occasional struggle, Saline still had plenty of highlights from the SEC meet, which consisted of an eight-team, no-division bracket in each weight class.
Seniors Joey Everett (at 285 pounds) and Bryce Rajabian (215) each returned from illness or injury to stroll to perfect records and first-place finishes, while fellow senior Luke O'Brien continued his strong comeback from injury with a second-place finish at 189. Ean Pokryfky (171) earned All-Conference honors by defeating Bedford's Kris Baker in the third-place match, a feat matched by Nate Opaleski at 125.
By virtue of second-best finishes among SEC Red wrestlers and fifth-place overall, Nick O'Neill was named All-Conference at 112, as was Will Baiocco at 152. Brent Greene (160) and Aaron Nagy (135) took fourth to help the Hornets claim their third-place finish.
Freshman Ryan O'Sullivan (103) won the team's Sportsmanship Award.
Even after the losses to South Lyon and Dundee, Saline still finished the regular season with a winning record at 18-17. But despite the Hornets' improvement in 2006, Marvin said that without a team district title, 2007 will still be remembered as a season that could have been better.
"That's what you practice for. The only reason to practice is to become state champions one day and this is the first step. We can't get the next one if we don't get this one," he said. "As a group, we're going to be very disappointed if we don't win districts."
The Ann Arbor Huron match is scheduled to begin 6 p.m. Thursday at Saline.
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