The Oxford High School Wrestlers finished second overall out of 29 teams that placed in the Dec. 20 Oakland County Tournament at Oxford Middle School.
Ten Wildcat grapplers finished in the top six places in various weight classes.
While the host team would have liked to have finished first place, they finished second to rival Lake Orion. ‘They’re a very good wrestling team,? said Oxford Coach Scott Couch. ‘It’s a dog fight every time we play them.?
In the weight classes, the Wildcats had one first-place and second-place finish and six third-place finishes. Dylan Smith took champion honors at heavyweight. Ben Ralston finished second in the 140-pound class.
Finishing third were: Keegan Cantera at 103 pounds; Calvin Cavanaugh at 112; Matt Frisch at 125; Bo Cantera at 152; A.J. Logan at 160; Josh Villarreal at 189. Prescott Line finished fourth at 215 and Geoffrey Charles fifth at 171.
‘I think we did very well,? Couch said. ‘We’re a very strong dual meet team but we weren’t sure how good we were individually. To place 10 wrestlers in the top sixth is pretty amazing. It goes to show how strong this team is. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. We would’ve liked to win, but to take second isn’t too bad.?
Friday’s snow storm, which dumped 12 inches of the white stuff on the Oxford area, left the wrestling tournament’s short-handed in terms of staffing. However, residents and parents pitched in to make it happen.
‘The Oxford community came out of the woodwork,? said Doug Myer. ‘Everyone just pitched in. That’s the mentality of Oxford. Hundreds of Oxford parents and kids worked with other people around Oakland County to run the day-to-day affairs.?
Normally, each team provides an extra wrestler to run the scoring table in shifts. With fewer teams showing up, Oxford pitched in and offered to run the tables.
Originally the meet was to take place over three days in Troy and in Oxford but ended up being just one day in Oxford. According to Myer, 24 schools were scheduled to wrestle at one site and 23 at another. A few schools backed out because of the snow, with approximately 43 coming to Oxford for the tournament.
Next up for the grapplers is a team tournament at home Tuesday, Dec. 30.