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Saline's Nate Opaleski (left) and Jay Augustyn each had wins in Saline's romp pver Pioneer in the team district semifinals Thursday. Saline would go on to win the distric championship over Lincoln.
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Despite his Saline wrestling team having defeated both of their likely team district tournament opponents by double-digit margins during the regular season, head coach Scott Marvin said his Hornets weren't going to take either Ann Arbor Pioneer or Lincoln lightly.
Judging by their performance in taking the district crown with relative ease Thursday night, they didn't.
The host Hornets crushed the Pioneers 50-5 in the district semifinal before clinching the championship with four classes still remaining in an easier-than-it-appears 40-32 win over the Railsplitters in the final.
The victory gave Saline its fifth team district championship in six years and advanced the Hornets to yesterday's team Regionals in Howell, where they will square off with state No. 2 Holt.
"We're really happy with how we wrestled tonight," Marvin said afterward. "Against Pioneer we had two or three kids who beat guys they had lost to the first time we wrestled them. It's big for us, big for the program. Hopefully, more students will see the success we're having and we'll have more kids come out and join the team."
"To beat Pioneer by 45 points, it shows how much we've improved this year," said Hornet senior Jake Feldkamp, who celebrated his birthday that day by going 2-0 on the evening at 171 pounds. "This was a good gift."
With the exception of a brief Lincoln run in the final, the Hornets were in control for nearly the entirety of the tournament. Against the Railsplitters, a Lincoln void to Jimmy Smyrnis at 130 and a Brent Clink major decision win at 135 pounds put Saline up 10-0 early.
Will Baiocco would post another a 14-4 win at 152, but Lincoln was able to grab pins at 145 (against the Hornets' Justin Dow) and 160 (vs. Luke Hoepfinger), and a major decision of their own at 140 (over Jay Augustyn), giving them a 16-14 lead entering the 171-pound match.
But Feldkamp would take a major decision to move Saline back in front 18-16 and the Hornets never looked back, taking the next three to clinch the meet.
All three of those wins came from Hornet seniors competing in their final home dual meet. Amir Rad nabbed a first-period pin at 189, Adam Davis (in the only home varsity match of his Saline career) won a back-and-forth match with a third-period pin at 215, and Nick Barnett remained undefeated with a major decision win at heavyweight.
The four-match sweep put Saline ahead 34-16 and — with shorthanded Lincoln guaranteed to void one of the remaining four classes — sealed the title.
With the meet in hand, Marvin voided 112 and called on freshmen Kareem Fayssa at 103 and John Thompson at 119, bringing Lincoln within 34-32, before Nate Opaleski won the void at 125 for the final eight-point margin.
"Lincoln had a couple kids out that would have helped them, but our kids wrestled hard," Marvin said. "I was glad to be able to get some of our younger guys in there and give them the opportunity to wrestle in a district final."
The Pioneer meet went even smother for the Hornets. Opaleski, Clink and Augustyn got Saline off to a 10-0 start with decisions at 125, 130 and 140, respectively. Sam Hepler (at 140) and Travis Coakley (at 145) lost close decisions as Pioneer trimmed the lead to 10-6, but those would prove to be Pioneer's only wins on the night.
Will Baiocco produced a technical fall for Saline at 152, followed by wins-by-void from Hoepfinger (at 160) and Feldkamp (at 171). Rad won a major decision at 189, Matt Price took a 6-0 decision at 215, and Barnett shut out his heavyweight opponent 6-0 for an overwhelming 32-point Hornet lead headed into the lighter weights.
Ryan O'Sullivan won a major decision at 103 and Nick O'Neill earned a pin to finish off what would be a 45-point victory after a one-point deduction from Pioneer for unsportsmanlike conduct by their coaching staff.
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be reached at 429-7380 or jhinnen@heritage.com.
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