Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
Grand Haven wrestling coach James Richardson knew his team had to get better, and said it would.
That revelation took place in December after his Buccaneers lost an OK Red Conference dual to league rival Rockford.
So Grand Haven worked, an d the team did improve – and those improvements were noticed Saturday (Feb. 5) at Hudsonville High School – when the Buccaneers crushed the competition at the league meet.
Grand Haven won by crowning seven champions and scored 212 points. Rockford was second with 154.5 points, just one point ahead of third place East Kentwood.
Grand Haven and Rockford share the overall league title because the Rams won the regular season with a perfect 7-0 dual record.
“I knew my kids had potential,” Richardson said. “I’m happy with where they are, and we still have three weeks to go in the season. Winning conference is very nice, but this is just one step to the end.”
Winning titles for the Buccaneers were Camden Bertucci at 103 pounds, Josh Juchartz at 125, Allen Torres at 135, Abraham Westerman at 145, Dakota Juarez at 152, Connor Moynihan at 171 and Garrett Kelly at 215.
The runner-up Rams had two champions: Nate Rojas at 119 and Tyler VanRooyen at 130.
“Today was Grand Haven’s day,” Rockford coach Brian Richardson said. “My hat’s off to James, they have a great team. But this is part two to the league schedule, and you can’t discount the first part, the dual-meet portion which we won. And I think we are a better dual-meet team than a tournament team.”
Aside from the OK Red, conference champions were crowned in all seven of the OK conferences this past weekend.
OK GOLD at FOREST HILLS EASTERN
The Middleville wrestling won its first OK Gold championship in three years by completing the league sweep by winning the conference tournament at Forest Hills Eastern High School Friday night with 213 points, 23.5 points better than runner-up Hastings.
The Trojans crowned six champions on the day, Chris Poland (103), Paul Haney (130), Oscar Cardosa (145), Cole Gahan (152), Austin Koehl (215) and Adrian Foster (285).
“The kids wrestled well today,” Middleville coach Scott Sczcepanek said. “They’ve done that all year.”
One of the more inspirational wins came from heavyweight Foster, who earlier in the day learned the tragic news of his stepfather’s suicide. And this all came on his 18 th birthday.
OK WHITE at GREENVILLE
Lowell continues to shine in the OK White. The Red Arrows won the regular season and on Friday at Greenville won the league meet with 281 points. Greenville was second with 241. Lowell had eight champions: Jordan Hall (119), Nate Limmex (125), Gabe Morse (140), Angus Arthur (145), Garett Stehley (171), Gabe Dean (189), Josh Colegrove (215) and Luke Stephens (285).
“It was a mixed bag,” We won some matches that we lost during the dual portion of the season, and we lost some matches that we won. We are making some ground as a team, but we lost some ground in individual areas as well.”
OK GREEN at HAMILTON
Byron Center made easy work of winning the OK Green title at Hamilton High School Saturday. The Bulldogs scored 223 points, 81.5 points ahead of runner-up Hamilton.
Byron Center had seven champions, Jake Busing (112), Nolan Waddell (119), Collin Thompkins (130), Jake Fuller (145), Tom Riemersma (152), Zack Gnass (171) and Austin Stedman (215).
OK BLUE at COOEPRSVILLE
The Sparta wrestling team earned the outright OK Blue championship by winning the league meet Saturday at Coopersville High School. That win, and the fact that Comstock Park, the regular-season champion took third, gave the Spartans the title.
Winning individual championships for Sparta were Brad Ronning (103), Nick Trimble (140) and James Rodgers (189).
OK BLACK at KENOWA HILLS
The Forest Hills Central team easily out-distanced runner-up Muskegon Reeths-Puffer in the final standings of the OK Black meet.
The Rangers had a total of six champions: Austin Tomko (112), Mitch Hyrniak (125), Senad Tukelijan (152), Jacob Torrey (160), Andrew Fotis (189) and Parker Tillman (285).
OK SILVER at KENT CITY
The Allendale wrestling team had no trouble winning the OK Silver title with 277.5 points.
The Falcons advanced 11 wrestlers in the finals, and come home with eight champions: Jackson Lambdin (103), Luke Jensen (112), Kyle Bradshaw (125), Connor Kroll (145), Isaac Jensen (152), Tyler Bachelor (160), Collin Beebe (189) and Glen Geurink (285).
Check out this link about Middleville’s Adrian Foster.
http://www.mlive.com/sports/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/02/middleville_wrestler_wins_titl.html