Two first, three second at annual Dick Dunn Memorial tourney

Two Cardinals won championships, while three finished second, as the Onaway High School (OHS) wrestling team hosted the annual Dick Dunn Memorial tournament.

Boyne City, Kalkaska, Forest Area and Mio joined OHS at the tournament. Due to the low numbers on those five teams, some weight classes were combined to provide wrestlers with more opponents.

Morgan Robins, recently returned from injury, won the tournament title at 140/145 pounds, going 5-0 with four first-period pins and a hard-fought 5-2 victory over Mio’s Harley Foust.

Isaac Nave also went 5-0 to win the 103/112-pound weight division. Nave pinned four opponents, three of them in the first period, and won a tough 2-1 decision over Landon Elliot of Forest Area.

Joe Traynham, who usually wrestles at 112 pounds, went 3-1, with three first-period pins, to finish second at 119/125.

He was pinned late in a match against Matthew Elliot of Forest Area – just his third loss of the season.

Justin Gedda finished 4-1, and took second, at 160 pounds. Gedda recorded a pair of pins, and earned a 14-12 win over Scott Blamer of Mio and a 6-4 win over Chris Schelske of Forest Area.

Casey Watson went 3-1, with three first-period pins, placing second at 171/189 pounds. His lone loss was by pin to Brandon Ames of Forest Area. Frankie Ramos and Bryan Brenner also competed for Onaway.

“As a team, I thought we wrestled well,” said coach Mark Grant. “Success is always dependent upon where you look, and we are succeeding in many ways right now.”

A few days earlier, the Cardinals competed in a three-team meet against Newberry and Rudyard, falling to the Indians, 30-12, but defeating the Bulldogs, 31-30.

In the match against Newberry, Traynham was a 9-2 winner at 125 pounds, Brenner was an 11-10 winner at 140, and Watson won by forfeit at 189. The win by Brenner, in dramatic fashion, was the first of

his varsity career.

Brenner followed that up by recording his first career pin and gaining six huge points, in the match against Rudyard. Traynham, Robins, Watson, and Ramos also recorded pins in the match, with Ramos earning his first win.

The match ended in a 30-30 tie, but the Cards earned the victory on criteria (more pins than their opponenent). The win was impressive, considering that OHS had only six wrestlers to Rudyard’s 10.

Onaway will compete Saturday at a tournament at Ithaca, where, according to coach Grant, the Cardinals will see some of the upper level programs in Division 4.