Dowagiac and Edwardsburg were looking to continue their winning ways in wrestling Wednesday at a Wolverine Conference quad meet at Dowagiac High School.

The Chieftains improved their dual match record to 14-5 after posting wins over Sturgis (41-29) and Three Rivers (48-30), while the shorthanded Eddies stood at 20-5 after beating Three Rivers, 69-6, and falling to Sturgis, 41-24.

Dowagiac erased a 30-26 deficit in its match against Sturgis. In the final three matches, the Chieftains got a 4-2 win from 103-pounder Kody Walker, a pin in 2:41 from 112-pounder Jesse Edge and a pin in 55 seconds from 119-pounder Xander Smith. The Trojans had a team point taken after the 112-pound match after being called for unsportsmanlike conduct.

In its win over Three Rivers, Dowagiac got pins from Walker (20 seconds), 125-pounder Gage Williams (1:32), 152-pounder Mason Hiler (1:46) and 160-pounder Michael Nuyen (15 seconds).

“There’s still a lot of room to improve,” said first-year Dowagiac wrestling coach Colin Burandt, whose team improved to 6-1 in the conference. “We gave up way too many pins. That’s an area we definitely can work on. We did have some kids win some matches that they weren’t suppose to win and total more points than we expected. They stayed confident the whole time and that’s what I try to tell them. That it doesn’t matter who you wrestle and that you can always beat them. Everybody gets beat at some point. Why can’t we get those big wins?”

Edwardsburg, which owns a 7-1 conference record, totaled 10 pins in its convincing win over Three Rivers.

The Eddies trailed 20-3 after the first six matches against the Trojans.

Edwardsburg pins in that match came from 189-pounder Blake Parsons (2:08), 119-pounder Michael Higley (35 seconds) and 125-pounder Hunter Vargo (1:23).

“We still didn’t wrestle with urgency in a couple of weight classes,” said Edwardsburg wrestling coach Michael Higley Sr. “We gave up six points in couple of weight classes where we couldn’t afford to. That’s been an Achilles heel for us the last couple of years. We get pinned where we shouldn’t.”

The Eddies were without five starters. Three of those wrestlers are ineligible to compete, while two others had to leave the team for personal reasons.

 

DOWAGIAC 41, STURGIS 29

(Sturgis deducted one point for unsportmanlike conduct)

At Dowagiac
103: Kody Walker (D) d. Troy Fries 4-2; 112: Jesse Edge (D) p. Trey Lovelace 2:41; 119: Xander Keller (D) p. Trenton  Moore 0:55; 125: Gage Williams (D) t.f. over Josh Maldonado 21-4; 130: Kris Wigent-Kenyan (D) d. Paul Kelly 5-2; 135: Noah Gleason (S) p. Kaleb Detwiler 1:40; 140: Nathan Tackitt (D) t.f. over Drew Pueschel 15-0; 145: Koehl Meek (S) p. Nick Turnbow 4:30; 152: Mason Hiler (D) d. Mason Stevens 4-3; 160: Luke Carver (S) p. Michael Nuyen 3:55; 171: Scotty Hassle (D) d. Wyatt Losinski 8-0; 189: Cole Campbell (S) p. Seth Fear 5:09; 215: Caleb Murphy (D) p. Xavier Geroux 2:38; 285: Jake Stevens (S) wins by forfeit.

 

DOWAGIAC 48, THREE RIVERS 30
103: Kody Walker (D) p. Joshua Starnes 0:20; 112: Jesse Edge (D) wins by forfeit; 119: Evan Griffin (TR) p. Xander Keller 1:41; 125: Gage Williams (D) p. Josh Draper 1:32; 130: Kris Wigent-Kenyan (D) d. Andrew Lough 10-5; 135: Chris Morrill (TR) p. Kaleb Detwiler 3:06; 140: Nathan Tackitt (D) t.f. over DeWayne Johnson 16-1; 145: Nick Turnbow (D) wins by forfeit; 152: Mason Hiler (D) p. Jerione Rhodes 1:46; 160: Michael Nuyen (D) p. Zach Forman 0:15; 171: Scotty Hassle (D) m.d. Zach Dye 16-3; 189: Tyler Moore (TR) p. Seth Fear 2:24; 215: Michael Rozner (TR) wins by forfeit; 285: Ronnie Rhodes (TR) p. Gabe Aranda 0:46.

Varsity record: Dowagiac 14-5
EDWARDSBURG 69, THREE RIVERS 6

At Dowagiac
103: Dylan Guernsey (E) pinned Josh Starnes, :09; 112: double void; 119: Michael Higley (E) pinned Evan Griffeon, 1:32; 125: Michael Tatay (E) pinned Josh Draper, 1:03; 130: Hunter Vargo (E) pinned Andrew Lough, :59; 135: Chris Morrill (T) won by forfeit; 140: Nick Bradley (E) pinned DeWayne Johnson, 3:15; 145: Lucas Marks (E) won by forfeit; 152: Jacob Andrina (E) pinned Jerione Rhodes, 2:53; 160: Austin Cline (E) pinned Zach Forman, :54; 171: Joe Hess (E) pinned Zach Dye, 2:42; 189: Blake Parson (E) beat Tyler Moore, 3-1; 215: Bo Thomas (E) pinned Michael Rozner, 1:37; 285: Josh Harris (E) pinned Ronnie Rhodes, 4:36.

STURGIS 41, EDWARDSBURG 24
103: Tory Fries (S) pinned Dylan Guernsey, 2:57; 112: Trey Lovelace (S) won by forfeit; 119: Michael Higley (E) pinned Treat Moore, :35; 125: Hunter Vargo (E) pinned Josh Maldanado, 1:23; 130: Jadon Miller (S) beat Michael Tatay, 6-3; 135: Paul Kelley (S) won by forfeit; 140: Noah Gleason (S) beat Nick Bradley, 4-3; 145: Koehl Meek (S) beat Lucas Marks, 8-1; 152: Jacob Andrina (E) beat Mason Stevens, 9-3; 160: Luke Carver (S) won by technical fall over Austin Cline, 17-2; 171: Joe Hess (E) beat Wyatt Losinski, 12-5; 189: Blake Parsons (E) pinned Quinton Damp, 2:08; 215: Cole Campbell (S) beat Bo Thomas, 4-3; 285: Jake Stevens (S) pinned Josh Harris, 1:17.

Varsity record: Edwardsburg 20-5