Wrestling Splits Dual Meet.
Dan Ward- One of the guys yelling from the corner.

I don’t mind
No, I don’t mind stealin’ bread
I’m goin’ hungry

One thing about wrestling, the big bad goblin, the Hollywood Movie trope, is cutting weight.
Stories of rubber suits, trash bags under hoodies, skipping meals, all the horror stories that you have heard are largely the stuff of legends and myths. Now before former wrestlers chime in with “I used to do this” and “I did that”, I know that used to happen and I sure that in some places it still does. However, at least in Michigan high schools, there have been a lot of rules put in place to negate those unhealthy practices. The big one is the Alpha test. Alpha tests happen at the beginning of the season and consist of a hydration test and a body fat test (commonly referred as the pinch test). Alpha tests use a formula to determine the lightest weight a wrestler can drop to and how much weight a wrestler can lose each week before reaching their lowest weight . The other thing is nutrition. Somewhere along the line people started figuring out that skipping meals and dehydration wasn’t healthy. Wrestling coaches and trainers have also become nutritionists. Lastly most regular season weigh-ins happen the night before an event, after practice. On-site weigh-ins happen for bigger tournaments and for the state competitions but a regular season dual meet is no longer an on-site weigh-in. So while cutting weight and maintaining a weight is still a thing in wrestling, it’s been made as healthy as it can possibly be.

So let’s get to the results. This week The Redwings Varsity Boys and Girls traveled to Sexton to take on the Division #3 10th ranked Williamston Hornets and the Sexton J-Dubs.

The Wrestling in the Girls Division this week were Haley Prohaska, Lori Morris and Olivia Pettigrew. While Haley came up a little short in her matches. Lori and Olivia pinned both of their opponents.

First up for the boys was Williamston. Williamston is an extremely tough team. Ranked #10 in Division 3 with several ranked individuals.
Williamston got out to a 24-0 lead that proved to be too much for the St. Johns. They ultimately would outpace the Redwings 47-29.
Taking wins for the Redwings were:
126- Reagan Ward By Fall 3:30
132- Tristan Densmore scored a Major Decision 14-3
138- Tyler Riedel by Decision 9-7
165- Brady Heibeck By Tech Fall 17-1
190- Brody Abendroth By Tech Fall 18-0
215- Abram Matice took a void.

Next up was Sexton. Sexton has a very young team this year St. Johns took advantage of it, racking up a 73-6 win over the J-Dubs. Sexton received a void at 106 and it was all St. Johns after that.
Scoring for St. Johns were:
113- Conner Skaryd took a void
120- Jameson Halsey won by Decision 8-6
126- Reagan Ward won by Fall 1:06
132- Tristan Densmore won by Fall 1:23
138- Tyler Riedel won by Fall :11
144- Xavier Benjamin won by Fall 1:47
150- Hayden BIllings took void
157- Fletcher Whitford won by Major Decision 15-6
165- Brady Heibeck took a void
175- Will Wharton took a void
190- Brody Abendroth won by Fall :59
215- Abram Matice won by Fall 1:50
285- Gavin Moreno won by Fall 1:21

St. Johns JV and Varsity Girls and Boys take the mats again on Saturday 12/14/24 at Fowlerville. The JV wrestle in DeWitt on 12/17/24 and Boys and Girls Varsity wrestle at Haslett on 12/18/24.