The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Three Hornets survive to Regionals
Barnett, Rad, and Pataro heading to East Kentwood
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 21, 2008
Three Saline wrestlers will be headed to their individual Regional tournament after surviving individual Districts in their home Saline gymnasium, but the Hornets may feel under-represented after several close matches went against them in Saturday's tournament.
Advertisement
Nick Barnett at 215 pounds, Amir Rad at 189, and the surprising Nick Pataro at 119 will each have their shot at a state berth after claiming the necessary fourth-place finish or better to advance to Regionals, which will be held at East Kentwood Saturday.
Barnett suffered his first loss of the year but nonetheless posted Saline's best finish of the day as the 215-pound runner-up. The senior pinned Jackson's Joe Holdridge in 3:04 and earned a 3-0 decision over Shane Hall of Howell to advance to the final against Holt's Mitch Zajac. Zajac won an 8-1 decision, dropping Barnett to 41-1 on the season.
Rad pinned Mills Chery of Lansing Everett in the 189 bracket's opening before seeing a familiar face in Round 2: teammate Adam Davis, who had won his own 6-3 opening round decision. Rad won a narrow 5-4 decision but was pinned by Holt's Corbin Boone in the following round.
The senior bounced back by winning a 4-3 thriller over Lansing East's David Miller to clinch his Regional spot before settling for fourth after a loss to Lansing East's William Benghauser. Benghauser had eliminated Davis, a winner-by-fall in an elimation match against Pinckney's Matt Blair, by a score of 11-2.
Like Barnett, Pataro (who entered with a 15-25 record) received a first-round bye and worked overtime to upset Lansing East's Eloy Solis (with a record of 25-17) 3-1. Holt's Kyle Hanton pinned the sophomore in the bracket semis but Pataro rebounded to down Pioneer's Devin Brodie 5-2 in the match to decide the fourth Regional berth. Pataro took fourth after falling to Howell's Matt Lewis 6-4 in the consolation final.
But elsewhere Saline saw less success. Ryan O'Sullivan was bounced in the 103-pound bracket's first round. Nick O'Neill won his opener at 112 10-8 over South Lyon's Jordan Schaefer but was pinned by wrestlers from Holt and Jackson in his next two meets to tie for seventh.
At 125, Nate Opaleski fell to Pioneer's Tommy Brosnahan (whom he had defeated in team districts earlier in the week) 7-5 in the second round. The senior won a 3-0 decision to earn a spot in the match for a berth but lost 3-1 to Howell's Erik Potere. Brent Clink had a similar outing at 130, sandwiching a 5-1 win over a South Lyon wrestler with losses by pin to opponents from Pinckney and Brighton. Clink tied for fifth with teammate Jimmy Smyrnis, who won 6-4 and 7-4 decisions over opponents from Okemos and Huron, respectively, but lost to the same two wrestlers who had eliminated Clink.
At 135, Sam Hepler was eliminated in the first round and Jay Augustyn went 1-2 (the win a 13-3 first-round decision over a South Lyon opponent) to tie for seventh. Like Opaleski and Smyrnis, Will Baiocco at 152 got his advancement shot after winning an elimination match 12-4 over a Pinckney opponent, but lost to Lincoln's Eddie Rakotz 10-8 and settled for fifth.
Jake Feldkamp also took fifth, winning via 9-3 first-round decision and elimination-match pin before losing a 14-13 heartbreaker to Holt's Mike Andring, finishing his day at 2-2 in the 171 bracket. Matt Price was another 2-2, fifth-place finisher, this time at 215 pounds. Price decisioned wrestlers from Pinckney and Brighton but was eliminated 9-1 by a Howell wrestler.
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
