Dowagiac grapplers 11th at Allegan meet

Published 8:41 pm Monday, December 4, 2006

By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
The Dowagiac varsity wrestling team finished 11th out of 15 schools at the Southwest Wrestling Classic held Saturday at Allegan High School.
The host Tigers won the team championship with 283.5 points. Allendale was second with 162 points, while Hastings and Whitehall rounded up the top five with 160 and 146.5 points respectively.
The Chieftains ended up with 80 points.
Nathan Cottrell was the top finisher for the Chieftains as he was fourth at 112-pounds with a record of 1-2. Cottrell's victory was the 100th of his career.
Deshaun Baylock and Robert Price were both fifth. Baylock went 3-1 at 152-pounds, while Price was 2-1 at 119-pounds.
Drew Staley was 3-2 and finished sixth at 215-pounds, while Nate Long was seventh at 140-pounds after going 3-2 on the day. Andrew Roden was eighth at 103-pounds with a 2-2 record and Richie Hutchinson was eighth at 135-pounds with a 2-3 record.
Also participating on Saturday, but not placing were Justin Richter, Terry Prowoznik, Andrew Hurrle and Nate Behnke.
"I thought we wrestled well," Dowagiac coach John Green said. "We still have some things to work on though. That was the toughest tournament we have been to in four years. I thought it was tougher than a regional tournament. All of the teams there had solid wrestling programs."
Dowagiac returns to action on Wednesday when it travels to Buchanan to take on the Bucks in a non-conference match.
Junior varsity wrestling is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
JV wrestling
Dowagiac competed in the Coloma Invitational on Saturday and placed four wrestlers.
John Mersereau was second at 130-pounds, while D.J. Tartt was third at 145-pounds. Michael McNeil and Sinjin Ownby were fifth and sixth respectively at 152- and 215-pounds.
Southwest Wrestling Classic
At Allegan High School
Individual results
Championship round
103: Derrick VanderWall (Muskegon Reeths Puffer)
112: Matt Watson (Hastings)
119: Steve Poffenberger (Allegan)*
125: Adam Draves (Grand Rapids Northview)
130: Mitch Reatini (Allendale)
135: Loren Haughn (Whitehall)
140: Brett Bernson (Muskegon Reeths Puffer)
145: Cody Groeneveld (Allendale)
152: Ed Constable (Swartz Creek)
160: Steve Case (Haslett)
171: Brandon Rhodes (Allegan)
189: Cameron Simaz (Allegan)*
215: Dan Craig (Allegan)*
285: Joe Rizquallah (Allegan)*
* Defending champions