A rematch of sorts was on hand at Clarkston on Wednesday when Rochester Adams visited the Wolves in the first match for each in the double-dual meet.
The teams met in the Oakland County meet in December where Clarkston (16-1, 5-0 OAA) secured its sixth-consecutive county championship and the Highlanders took eighth place in the 43-team event.
The night, much like the county meet, belonged to the Wolves, who again left their own gym with the victory, this time 38-22.
Adams (5-5, 2-1 OAA) could not recover after pulling within one point, 23-22, after Jason Jack’s (119 pounds) 10-2 decision over Tom Clark. County champion Mike Maguire (125 pounds) pinned Nick Minton swiftly, at 0:35 of the first period. The pin put Clarkston ahead 29-22.
The individual match of the night was a meeting of the undefeated county champs at 171 pounds, where Adam Lauzun and Wayne Sanders of Adams, both put their 22-0 records on the line. Sanders, the 189-pound champion last month, has been wrestling both weights this season.
Lauzun drew much crowd support, but Sanders took a 3-2 lead, which stretched to 6-4 late in the match. Sanders won a 6-5 decision.
‘Wayne and Adam, two of the best wrestlers in the state at 171, it’s great to see guys like that go at it toe-to-toe. It could have gone either way, it was a very close match,? said Highlanders coach Nathaniel Farley.
Farley said Sanders came into the season weighing close to 190 pounds, but has worked to get his weight down and is now in control of which class he wrestles at, Farley said.
Adams struck first when Joe Voges pinned Evan King at 145 pounds, but Colton Tweed (152) took a 16-4 decision over Nick Heiple and Bryant Craft (160) pinned Jason Finney at 5:40 to put Clarkston back in the lead 10-6.
Tommy Ellsworth (189) won a major decision and Layne Upcott (215) pinned also.
Steve Cooper (275), Alex Popp (130) and Tyler Schneider (135) won decisions for the Wolves as well.
Erik Butterfield (140), second place at the county meet, defeated Ryan Grenier who took third place, 3-2, to close the match.
‘We weren’t really firing out of the gates like we wanted to. The guys are a little worn down right now from working real hard and that’s all part of the long game plan. We break the bodies down, break the minds down right now and then in the end you start to lighten up on the guys and they start to come back to life and shooting out of the gate even faster than they were before, and that’s part of the game plan right now,? Clarkston coach Joe DeGain said.
‘We’re not real happy right now with explosiveness and aggressiveness. I think the guys are a little worn down.
‘It’s something they’ve got to push through and that way, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger and that’s the way they’ve got to look at it,? he added.
Similar to last week’s double-dual at Troy, the Wolves jumped on top of their second opponent of the night. This week, the Colts served as prey in Clarkston’s 63-7 victory.
Tweed pinned Tony Vitello to kick things off.
Brian Grishkevich (160), wrestling in his first varsity-A team match, earned a 13-11 come from behind decision in overtime against Billy Waterstreet.
‘It was great to see him come through with a victory. That was really exciting, he wrestled really tough,? DeGain said.
Lauzun rebounded to pin Nick Berti at 0:46 and Ellsworth followed, pinning George Zhao at 0:21.
Clarkston ran a 36-0 lead until Chris Mason (112), third place at the county meet, defeated Matt Dietz in a 12-4 decision.
‘They came out a little bit quicker than they did in the first match and when you do that, it’s easier to keep that pace,? DeGain said.
‘When you don’t come out at that first whistle shooting and really moving, it’s hard to get your body moving to that speed later in that match. Since they started early, I think they wrestled better.?
The Wolves travel to back-to-back Saturday meets, the first at Bay City Western (Jan. 13) and the latter is the Western Brown Invitational in Ohio on Jan. 20. Look for the results on The Clarkston News? Website at www.clarkstonnews.com.