The Wildcat grapplers took a hard 46-17 dual meet loss Jan. 27 against Detroit Catholic Central (DCC).
‘The meet kind of got away from us. Even though it was actually pretty close, the score at the end doesn’t really reflect how close the dual really was,? said Oxford Head Coach Paul McDevitt.
Junior Vinny Vackaro kicked off the match-up with a 7-5 victory at 140 pounds. Senior captain Alex Hrisopoulos wished himself a happy 18th birthday with a 20-4 technical fall at 145 pounds. A third victory came from freshman Devin Trevino with a 5-2 decision win at 160. Senior captain Wyatt Harden bumped up to Heavyweight to take home a successful 3-1 decision and junior Jacob Call walked away with an exciting 8-2 decision triumph at 119. Despite taking an early 11-3 lead over the Shamrocks, the Wildcats? Dalton Myers, 103, Shane Moore, 112, Joe Vackaro, 130, Caleb Tabert, 135, Dallas Winkelman, 189 and Byron Schlickenmeyer at 215 all took losses by fall, which contributed to Oxford’s eventual defeat.
Out of the six losses, McDevitt said Myers, Vackaro and Schlickenmeyer’s were all really close matches that they were winning, but ended up getting pinned for the loss.
‘In order for us to beat DCC, we pretty much have to have a perfect dual against them,? he said. ‘We’re capable of putting that together, we just have to make sure we do it when we need to, if we get the opportunity to do it again (this season).?
Despite the loss, McDevitt noted he and the other coaches are confident about the rest of the season based on how well their grapplers wrestled.
‘We’re pretty confident that no one is out of our league and that we can compete with the best teams in Division I,? he added. ‘We just have to do better than what we are right now.?
On Saturday, Oxford hosted the Oakland-Macomb dual meet, where the five best teams in Oakland County faced off against the five best teams in Macomb County.
Of the five Oakland County teams, which included Clarkston, Brandon, Rochester and Waterford Kettering, Oxford was the only one to win anything.
Oxford went 4-1 on the day beating state-ranked teams Macomb Dakota, Warren Woods Tower and Anchor Bay, as well as Fraser. They lost to Richmond, the state champion last year.
‘We beat them in a close dual earlier this year and we lost to them in a close dual on Saturday,? McDevitt pointed out.
Because of injuries to three of his state-qualifiers and one of their top wrestlers, McDevitt said they started six freshmen and two sophomore wrestlers.
‘They just went out there (and) beat three state-ranked teams,? he explained. ‘So, I was pretty proud of our young team and where we’re headed. It was a pretty good day for us.?
The ‘wrestler of the week,? was Freshman Devin Trevino at 160 pounds.
‘He won against a state-ranked Catholic Central kid and then went 5-0 Saturday,? McDevitt said. ‘He beat some really good kids, so he was really our standout wrestler this week.?
The boys will next take the mat tonight (Feb. 3) away against Stoney Creek before heading back to Stoney Creek on Friday for the OAA Division Championship.
‘We still have a few injuries . . . . but if we can go in there and win the tournament, we’ll be outright champs and it will be nine straight (league championships in a row),? McDevitt said.