Cardinals have good first weekend tournament
by Angie Asam-Staff Writer
The Onaway wrestling team traveled to Blanchard-Montabella Saturday for an invitational. The Cardinals had a good day, coming home with three champions and eight medalists overall.
Senior Joe Traynham (119), junior Zeke Nave (125) and senior Raymond Self (130) all went undefeated on the day to take first place.
“The guys wrestled hard which gives us plenty to work on for the upcoming week. Joe did not have many experienced kids in his group so his workload was light. Zeke had much the same in his bracket. Ray worked hard and had a nice late match fall to pull off a tough win, his mental toughness is fantastic and he just keeps working,” said coach Mark Grant.
Elijah Shockley was 2-3 at 189 to place third. Troy Klein (160), Jesse Watson (135), Juan Janeczek (152) and Keegan Freel (215) each finished fourth.
Also competing was Keli Russell who went 1-4 at 145 pounds. L
“Every one of the boys had at least one win but one I liked a lot was Troy’s. He was wrestling a solid kid who was visibly stronger but Troy just kept working and simply out-wrestled the kid to get the win. He has made a lot of progress since last year. Our new guys continued wrestling tough and some of the pure athleticism they displayed in every match was really fun to watch,” said coach Grant.
The Cardinals hosted Petoskey and Rogers City Thursday (after press time) and are off to the Chippewa Hills Invitational Saturday.
“With the first weekend of the season past us, I see quite a bit of promise in this crew. We need to have a good week, focus on grades, practice and sleep as we prepare for a very active Christmas break where we will be on the road quite a bit,” said coach Grant.