Things were setting up perfectly for the Dowagiac wrestling team to pick up a pair of Wolverine Conference wins Wednesday night.

Or so they seemed.

With a match that appeared to be headed into the hands of Chieftains standout heavyweight Tristan Howard, South Haven derailed Dowagiac’s plan.

Instead of being able to earn a sweep, the Rams edged Dowagiac 40-36 in the first round of the quad meet.

The Chieftains did not hang their heads and rebounded to blowout Coloma 63-16 in the second match of the night.

“In these close matches you have got to be able to stay off your back,” Dowagiac coach Matt Alward said. “We knew it was going to be close. We gave up some points were we should not have and we got pinned a couple of times where we needed to just stay off our backs.”

Dowagiac trailed South haven 34-30 as Wesley Beaver took the mat against Brenden Buck.

The Chieftains needed a victory at 215-pounds in order to give Howard a chance to win the match. Beaver did everything he could to try and earn that win before being pinned by Buck at the 5:08 mark.

Howard used just 1:15 to pin Robert Barringer, but it was not enough.

“I told the kids, that when you wrestle a quality team like South Haven you have to pull out the tight ones,” Alward said. “There were a couple of weights down low and in the middle where we wrestled tough and wrestled six minutes, but we have to be able to pull one or two of those matches out. We have to win the close ones.”

Dowagiac extracted a measure of revenge in the second round against the Comets, who knocked off the Chieftains in the district finals last year.

“This is one we wanted,” Alward said. “We were excited to get an opportunity to wrestle them again. We came out and we wrestled hard. I do not question our effort. The kids wrestled hard.”

 

WOLVERINE QUAD

At Dowagiac

South Haven…40

Dowagiac…36

103: Dennis Rayford (SH) p. Kody Walker 4:28; 112: Gage Williams (D) won by forfeit; 119: Austin Morgan (SH) p. Jose Lopez 1:05; 125: Omar Molina (SH) won by forfeit; 130: Shawn Sirk (D) p. Martiece Wright 2:34; 135: Luis Ruiz (SH) beat Nathanael 10-3; 140: Samuel Cortez (SH) beat Nathan Tackitt 9-4; 145: Aubrey Huston (D) p. Michael Williams 5:57

152: Deandre Juarez (SH) t.f. over Mason Hiler 19-3; 160: Tony Colton (SH) t.f over Caleb Sands 18-1; 171: Tom Smith (D) won by forfeit; 189: Troy Ring (D) p. Ryan Rainey 5:59; 215: Brenden Buck (SH) p. Wesley Beaver 5:08; 285: Tristan Howard (D) p. Robert Barringer 1:15

 

Coloma…16

Dowagiac…63

103: Kody Walker (D) won by forfeit; 112: Gage Williams (D) won by forfeit; 119: Jose Lopez (D) p. Billy Coleman III 1:33; 125: Sergio Hernandez (C) won by forfeit; 130: Shawn Sirk (D) p. Hunter Mazigian 1:29; 135: Drace Taylor (C) major decision over Nathanael Ward 18-10; 140: Nathan Tackitt (D) p. William Fogarty 3:25; 145: Aubrey Huston (D) beat Austin Ebrecht 8-2

152: Mason Hiler (D) won by forfeit; 160: Caleb Sands (D) p. Elliot Danneffel :23; 171: Tom Smith (D) p. Tristan Lake 1:55; 189: Troy Ring (D) p. Anthony Daisy 3:30; 215: Matt Sweet (c) p. Wesley Beaver :23; 285: Tristan Howard (D) p. Jeremiah Little 1:08