Four Cardinal wrestlers medal at tough Ithaca tournament
Six members of the Onaway High School wrestling team made the trip Saturday to the competitive Ithaca Invitational tournament, with four medaling and two finishing above their seeds.
As a squad, the Cardinals finished 11th among the 18 schools competing, despite being extremely shorthanded. Casey Watson and Isaac Nave led the way, with both taking second in a weight class.
Coach Mark Grant said, because of a mistake, Watson got seeded eighth at 189 pounds. This forced him to face the top seed in that weight division in his second-round match.
Watson responded by defeating the top seed, then knocked off a wrestler whose seed he should have received, to advance to the 189-final, where he lost but “wrestled extremely tough,” according to Grant.
Nave went 2-1 to finish second at 103 pounds, earning a solid victory over a wrestler from Carson City in the semifinals before “making a mistake” that cost him a pin in the finals, according to Grant.
Justin Gedda, seeded seventh at 160 pounds, had a good day, going 3-1 and finishing fifth in that weight class – recorded a pin in the match for fifth to complete his tournament.
Morgan Robins went 2-2 and finished fourth in an extremely competitive 140-pound weight division that saw the top seed not even make the medal
Last Wednesday, the wrestling team competed in a three-team meet at St. Ignace, falling to the host Saints, 57-15, but defeating Charlevoix, 31-30, with the final point awarded because the Cards had more individual match first points.
Joe Traynham (119 pounds) and Robins (140) both recorded pins for Onaway in the match with St. Ignace, while Brenner earned a 6-5 victory.
Traynham (112 pounds), Robins (140), and Gedda (160) earned pins in the match with Charlevoix, with Nave (119) and Watson (189) earning team points by forfeit.
The wrestling team will participate in the most competitive meet on its schedule Saturday when its travels to Gaylord for the annual 33-squad Northern Michigan Championships.