The Wildcat grapplers placed third out of 39 teams at the Oakland County Championship Tournament held this past weekend at Lake Orion High School.
Oxford had a total score of 200 points, while Detroit Catholic Central took first place with 293 and Walled Lake Central earned second place with 280.
‘I think we did pretty well considering we went in there with a couple pretty important guys on our team out of the line up for various reasons,? said Head Coach Paul McDevitt. ‘Despite that, we still went in and the guys that did wrestle did a really nice job.?
Missing from the lineup was heavyweight Adam Schlickenmeyer and starting 171-pounder Peter Economou.
‘I think if we would have had those guys, we would have been in the mix for first or second (place), but finishing third, while being shorthanded, is still pretty good,? McDevitt added.
Champions of the day included Wyatt Hardin (7-2) at 215 and Alex Hrisopoulos (14-1) at 130 pounds.
‘Alex and Wyatt are pretty accomplished wrestlers,? McDevitt said. ‘They’ve been in a lot of big situations, so they’re pretty tough kids.?
Sergio Borg (14-1) and Collin Campbell (13-2) were runners up in second place.
‘Those guys had a heck of a tournament. That was Sergio’s first loss as a high school wrestler. That’s pretty impressive that he made it all the way to Oakland County finals before losing a match,? he said. ‘Collin is our only senior in our lineup, so he had a pretty good tournament as well.?
Other winners included Ryan Miller (13-2), who took fourth at 103, and Garrett Tyrrell (10-5), who took eighth at 125 pounds.
‘We hoped we would have had a few more (place), but some of our sophomores are just learning and getting over that hump of being youngsters, and even some of our dependable wrestlers fell a little bit short,? McDevitt said. ‘We lost a lot in the blood round, where if you win, you place (and) if you lose, you’re out of the tournament. Garrett was the one who came through and made it out of that round, so he did a nice job.?
McDevitt said he is looking forward to ‘taking the next two weeks (of Christmas vacation) and spending some time in practice working on our technique.?
‘Then when we hit the ground running in January, it’s going to be twice-a-week grind every week until we get to the state tournament,? he said.
The boys will return to the mat on Jan. 3 when they travel to Detroit Catholic Central for the DCC Invite.