Grant competes in national finals
In late June, Matthew Grant of Onaway traveled to Utah to compete in the Youth National Finals for both Freestyle and Greco Roman Wrestling.
The Greco tournament was first and started Monday afternoon. Grant defeated Jeremy DeVries of Alaska by fall in 3:40 in round one. In the quarterfinals he defeated Cameron Crawford of Washington 7-5 to move into the semifinals.
In the semifinals he fell to Pennsylvania’s Carter Tuttle 7-0. He then defeated Sonny Santiago of California 3-2 in the consolation semifinals. Next up was the match for third place, a rematch between Grant and Crawford. Grant was unable to beat Crawford this time and finished fourth in the tournament.
IN THE Freestyle portion of the tournament, Grant defeated DeVries to move on to the quarterfinals where he beat Utah’s Brayden Tucker 5-3 to move to the semifinals.
Grant’s semifinal match was against Greco Champion Dominic Damon of Washington and he fell 11-1.
Grant then took on Crawford in his wrestle-back match and lost a slug-fest match 10-8. Losing that match dropped Grant into the match for fifth place where he faced Tucker once more.
Early in the mach Grant worked his way to a 6-2 lead before giving up a late takedown to end the match and his experience in Utah with a win and a fifth-place finish.
“Overall his bracket was very competitive, seeing kids from many different states along with some who he did not get the chance to wrestle. As a two-time medalist he achieved All-American status and is currently ranked sixth by USA Wrestling for novice 100 pound wrestlers in Olympic style wrestling,” said Mark Grant, his father.