Bill Barrett trophy stays in Rogers City
The Rogers City wrestling program remains the only school to win the Bill Barrett Memorial after two years. Rogers City defeated Alpena 47-19, Newberry 70-12, St. Ignace 44-33, Sault Ste. Marie 53-26, and then widened its lead against St. Ignace, 46-28, the second time they faced the Saints for the trophy, in the tournament Saturday at RCHS.
?Any time Rogers City can win a tournament that?s called the Bill Barrett Memorial, it sits very well with the head coach,? said coach Pat Lamb of the tournament named for the founder of the RCHS wrestling program. ?I?m very pleased we won the tournament,,? Lamb said. ?Any time you win a tournament you have to be thankful and happy with your success, but to win the Bill Barrett Memorial tournament just means all that much more to me.?
The Hurons are at home hosting Whittemore-Prescott and Mio today, and travel to Ithaca Saturday.
DYLAN CENTALA, one of four freshmen tournament champions for Rogers City, earned the award as the outstanding wrestler of the lower weights, 103 pounds to 140 pounds. Sawyer Plume of Alpena, at 160 pounds, earned the award for the best wrestler from 145 pounds and up. The awards were voted on by all eight head coaches and four officials.
Centala (26-0) capped his undefeated day with a pin in 2:26 over his St. Ignace opponent. ?Dylan is doing everything we?ve asked of him so far this year,? said Lamb. ?I?m at the same point with Dylan right now as I was with Andy Keller last year. I?m running out of adjectives to explain his performance. All I can say is ?wow.? ?
Centala was bumped up to 125 pounds to wrestle Tom Wilson, a very good wrestler from Alpena, whom Centala defeated 12-7. ?We knew that Dylan was going to have a phenomenal year, but we didn?t know he would tear through the competition as he has to this point this year,? said Lamb. Centala, who was unranked at the beginning of the season, is now ranked second at 119 pounds.
THE OTHER wrestlers winning all their matches were freshmen Austin Fairbanks, Cody Wenzel, and Brian Krueger, sophomores Joshua Christ and Chris Rhode, junior Justin Kelley and senior Mackenzie Grulke. In the championship dual with St. Ignace, the Hurons started off trailing 9-0 after Mark Grulke and Scott Keller lost their matches, but Lamb was pleased with the efforts of the two athletes.
Keller, who had been pinned by Cody Jeffreys of St. Ignace twice before and lost another decision 11-3 early Saturday, came back and nearly pulled out a win in his final match. The decision went in favor of Jeffreys, 6-5. ?I thought Scott wrestled the best match of his season so far,? said Lamb. ?Scott put it all together for this match and really wrestled well. Personally I thought he had a takedown at the end of the match.?
With a Mackenzie Grulke decision and a pin by Rhode in 2:29, the Hurons were on top 10-9. Tyl
KRUEGER WON with a void at 103 pounds, which was followed by pins by Fairbanks (1:34) and Centala. St. Ignace voided Kelley?s and Wenzel?s weight classes and the Hurons had a commanding 44-15 lead. The championship round ended with Matt Tomas losing 6-1 at 135 pounds, Rogers City voiding 140 pounds, and Joe Marcotte dropping a 14-2 decision. The Hurons traveled to St. Ignace last Thursday to wrestle the host Saints and Onaway.
Rogers City won both ends of the double-dual defeating the under-manned Cardinals 66-6 and St. Ignace 43-35. Double winners were Krueger, Fairbanks, Centala, Kelley, Wenzel, Mackenzie Grulke, Rhode, and Christ. Winning one match were Keller, Mark Grulke, and Andy Peacock.
