Mark Weber and Grant Overcashier made sure the hometown fans had something to cheer about at the Goodrich Wrestling Tournament of Champions Dec. 30.
The two Goodrich wrestlers won their weight classes at the tournament, with Weber winning at 112 lbs. and Overcashier at 130 lbs., as the Martians finished eighth out of 18 teams at the tournament with 89 points.
Goodrich’s finish was an improvement from last year, when the Martians finished 12th out of 18 teams.
Hesperia won first place with a total of 193 points, beating out second-place Dundee (180) and third-place Addison (166), who won the 2004 Tournament of Champions with 144 points.
Kearsley’s Chris Diehl was voted the tournament’s outstanding wrestler in the 103-140 lb. weight classes, while Hesperia’s Justin Zeerip earned the same honor in the 145-275 lb. classes.
Addison and Hesperia each had three individual champions in the event. Addison’s three champions were Lance Bice (140), Matt Elston (145) and Tom Schneider (189). In addition to Zeerip, Dan Yate (125) and Brandon Zeerip (119) won individual championships for Hesperia.
By contrast, Dundee had only one division champion at the tournament (Josh White at 103 lbs.), but the Vikings had four wrestlers win second-place honors, contributing to their high finish.
In Goodrich’s two championship matches of the day, Weber defeated Dundee’s Pete Rendina 7-3 in the 112-lb. finals, while Overcashier triumphed against Warren Woods Tower’s Brennan Brumley 8-5 in the 130-lb. title match.
After receiving a first-round bye, Weber pinned Traverse City Central’s Jacob Secor in 1:50 and Springport’s Jacob Eagen in 5:54 to set up the championship match.
In his first match, Overcashier defeated Fowlerville’s Michael Ziegman 6-1 in the opening round of the 130-lb. bracket, then earned an 8-2 win against Swartz Creek’s Ron McNea in the second round. He advanced to the division finals with a hard-fought 4-3 win against Hesperia’s Mark Ackerberg.
The Martians? David Garr also had a solid showing at the invite, finishing in third place in the 103-lb. division. Garr defeated Addison’s Cory Timmerman 4-2 in the third-place match, his second win against Timmerman in the tournament.
After a first-round bye, Garr defeated Timmerman 6-2 before losing a close 14-12 match against eventual division champion Josh White of Dundee. Garr then bounced back to pin Swartz Creek’s Jon Free in 2:30 before earning his second win against Timmerman.
Two other Goodrich wrestlers, Nick Lovell (140) and Kyler Elsworth (152), earned eighth-place finishes.
Lovell was pinned by Dundee’s Brad Wade in 4:57 in his first match of the day, then pinned Mt. Morris? Josh Tabit in 1:27 and New Boston Huron’s Matt Krusell in 2:16 before being pinned by Kearsley’s Troy Root in :47.
Elsworth started out the tournament with a narrow 5-4 loss to Traverse City Central’s Seth Wistrand, then pinned New Boston Huron’s Robbie Damico in 1:11 and Fowlerville’s Dillan Kern by default before being pinned by Bronson’s Shane Schoneboom in 4:16.