WEST BRANCH – Sweeping a pair of dual matches against Midland Bullock Creek and Reed City, the Ogemaw Height wrestling team extended its winning streak on its home mat last Wednesday despite leaving three weight classes open.
The Falcons dominated both matches, turning back Bullock Creek by a 45-24 score and handling the Coyotes, 48-34. Eight wrestlers collected a pair of wins to lead the way.
A lot of the Falcon’s backups competed in a meet at Boyne City the night before, and in the process of doing that they had a couple wrestlers not make weight and were absent from school.
It left three open weight classes where the Falcons did not send anyone out to wrestle.
“My message to our guys before the match was we had an uphill battle to fight,” Falcons wrestling coach Dominic Goulette said. “The other two teams had pretty much full lineups.
“They (Falcons) rose to the occasion. Every guy that went out on the mat gave us great effort. Even guys that got beat never gave up. It was great to see guys out there fighting off their backs and continuing to battle even though they were losing the match the whole time. I think it put a spark in us.”
Johnny Dubke had a real one-point match against a kid who beat him last year to deny Dubke a trip to state. Goulette said that match really fired up the team.
Third-year wrestler Nathan Freimark has really stepped up his game this year according to Goulette. Last year he finished just under .500, and this year as a junior he’s been turning the corner. He picked up two pins last Wednesday.
Other double winners for the Falcons were Clint Talisic, Scott Smith, David Sarholz, Zea Kartes, Owen Prusinski and Tristan Miller.
“Sarholz is a foreign exchange student from Germany, and he was able to get two pins,” Goulette said. “The team kind of rallies around him because he’s the new guy and his time with us is limited.
“He did a move, a headlock move where he threw his guy right in the air, where his feet went right over his head. Everybody in the gym let out a cheer. It was neat. He’s been fun to have this year.”
The Falcons will compete in the Freeland individual tournament that usually has about 25 teams entered on Friday, Dec. 28 and then have a 10 team home tournament on Saturday,
