Brandon’s wrestling team ran into some tough competition at the Oakland County wrestling meet Dec. 17-18.
The Blackhawks placed 35th out of 44 teams at the meet, held at Clarkston High School. Brandon finished with 44 points.
Clarkston won the meet with 262 points, followed by Holly (236), West Bloomfield (205.5), Lake Orion (175.5) and Rochester (162).
Three Brandon wrestlers made it to the second day of competition, and of those three, Jimmy Millar (119) was the only one to win a match that day, defeating Kyle Pollock of West Bloomfield before losing to A.J. Pratt of Lake Orion and Andrew Roeser of Walled Lake Northern, both times by forfeit.
Travis Murphy (103) lost to Kevin Arafat of West Bloomfield on the second day before dropping an 8-6 decision to Brendan Tobin of Lake Orion. Brandon’s other Day 2 competitior, Jack Boswell (112), lost to Avondale’s Pete Peterson 9-3.
The Blackhawks sent three other wrestlers to the Oakland County meet. John Soave (140) was pinned by Waterford Mott’s Terry Clees in 3:03 and by Demario Stewart of Pontiac Central (3:00).
Justin Eimers (160) pinned Matt Prince of White Lake Lakeland in 2;39 before losing a 14-4 major decision to Avondale’s Craig Pitt and being pinned by West Bloomfield’s Yianni Moriatis in 4:15.
Matt Porter (275) started out losing to Walt Gasdon of Avondale by pinfall in 49 seconds. He then pinned Anthony Atto of Bloomfield Hills Andover in 1:53 and Bobby Fisher of Pontiac Central in 38 seconds. Porter was then pinned by Darren Peshl of Lake Orion in 2:07.
The Blackhawks dropped both ends of a dual meet Dec. 15, as the Blackhawks lost to Byron 50-30 and Flushing 47-34.
The matchup against Byron was evenly fought through the first six matches, with each team winning three times. For the Blackhawks, Zeke Grounds (215) pinned Josiah Hillaker in 3:40; Murphy (103) pinned Kevin Smith in 5:00; and Millar (119) pinned John Taphouse in 2:15.
However, the Eagles pulled away toward the end for the win. John Soave (140) and Justin Eimers (160) earned Brandon’s other two wins of the match, both by pinfall.
Against Flushing, the Blackhawks won three straight matches after Flushing’s Matt Taylor (275) won by void. Murphy (103) and Boswell (112) won by void for the Blackhawks, while Millar (119) scored a pinfall victory.
The Raiders, though, won three straight matches to take command of the match. The Blackhawks did not go home completely empty-handed, as Soave (140) and Grounds (215) won by void and Cody Sisk (189) won by pinfall.