BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves protected their home turf as they went 2-1 on Saturday in their Clarkston Quad.
“I thought we did well,” said Clarkston Varsity Wrestling Head Coach Brian Gibbs. “It’s still early season and there is a lot to work on. But there was a lot of fight. I think with just a little more time and getting into a rhythm I think we should have a pretty good team.”
Clarkston hosted Edsel Ford, Utica and Edwardsburg – teams they usually don’t compete against in the season.
Gibbs added it helps to get them ready for the post season especially since they get to see teams from throughout the state and different experience levels.

“By the time districts comes around they have seen everybody and a year like this where we don’t have a schedule full of league meets and individual meets, we are allowed to schedule duals with teams we haven’t seen,” he said. “It is the one benefit of this year. Being able to do this is extremely beneficial to them as far as mindset goes being able to see everybody.”
The Wolves opened the morning with a 52-18 win over Edsel Ford, starting with the Gabriel Gipe 145-pound weight class.
Gipe posted a 15-4 major decision win over Brandon Andrews for four points.
More wins came from Logan Miracle (152) over Sami Almadhagi, 14-8; John Lord (171) with a fall over Sohaib Mussad in the first 38 seconds; Collin Trevino (215) with a fall over Mahammed Beydoun in the first 41 seconds of the match; Matthew Jaffke (119) with a fall over Thomas Sullivan; and Ryan Rector (140) over Braylon Orsette, 8-6.
Hayden Payne (189), Darian Henry (125), Ashton Anderson (130) and Cayden Strong (135) won by a void.
Clarkston won their second dual over Utica, 55-21, which began with a pin by Miracle over Hunter Ali.
Pins also came from Lord over Jacob Troye; Trevino over Shane Joachim; Jaffke over Alexandria Sparks; Anderson over Hunter Thomson; Strong over Jerome Mannino; and Gipe over Dustin Gordon.
Henry won his match with a 9-1 major decision over Nathan Guty and Payne won by void.
The Wolves finished the day with a 48-23 loss to Edwardsburg.
Payne posted the first win for Clarkston with a 13-5 major decision victory over Nathan Andrina.
Wins also came from Trevino over Tabor Lock, 5-1; Henry over James Pegan, 5-4; Anderson over Nick Eaton with a fall; Strong over Andrew Castelucci, 3-0; and Gipe over Colten Strawderman, 11-3.
Clarkston opened the season on Wednesday with a win over Rochester and losses to Oxford and Lake Orion.
“Wednesday went well,” Gibbs said. “We got a good gauge of what we need to do to return to the state tournament again as a team this year. We had a few key wrestlers out. Saturday we did as well. With numbers being down in a COVID year, it’s hard to recoup.”
Wrestlers will return to the line up this week as the Wolves go to Roseville on Wednesday and Jefferson High School on Saturday.
“Both should be a good gauge,” Gibbs said. “Getting people back in the line up and really filling it back out will be a good test to see where we are at as we move forward.”

  Clarkston Wrestling, Wrestling