The Clarkston Varsity Wrestling team took fourth place at the Horn Memorial during the weekend.
They beat Rockford, 54-12, and Tecumseh, 44-29, and lost to St. John’s, 58-12, and Hartland, 45-18.
“I was proud of our kids and how they competed,” said coach Derek Moscovic. “We wrestled a couple of matches well and then we had some other matches where we need to improve on.”
He added St. John’s was a dominating team and six of their wrestlers are ranked in the nation.
Standouts for the tournament where Chris Calvano, Nick Vandermeer, Tyler Slating and Mitchell Nelson.
“It was an up and down day,” said Moscovic. “We had some great performances in some duals and then we had some less than great performances. It was one of those things you pat yourself on the back for the accomplishment of winning but there is still a lot of work to do in order to be able to compete against the best teams in the state.”
The tournament also gave them a good look of where they are right now and where they need to be if they want to get to the state finals.
“Hartland is a team we will have to get past to get to the state tournament,” said Moscovic. “In order for us to get to the state tournament we will have to improve in order to have a chance. It is a good indicator on what we need to improve to become one of the state’s best programs.”
The boys will have another opportunity to see where they are at as they head into another big tournament this week.
On Friday and Saturday they will head up against local teams in the Oakland County Meet.
“It looks good,” he said. We have a chance to wrestle well. I think if the guys can wrestle for two days and compete and keep their heads clear for every round we will do well. We have a lot of tough competition.”
The tournament begins on Friday, 4 p.m. at Southfield High School, 24675 Lahser Road. It continues on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Lake Orion, 495 East Scripps Road.