Cavs beat Roughriders for third

COLDWATER - The high school wrestling season got underway on Saturday as Coldwater hosted nine other schools at the sixth Bob Sielski Memorial Duals at the Palace.

Neither the Cavaliers nor the other local team in the field, St. Marys, made it to the championship match for the undefeated teams, instead, the duo met for third place after each team lost in the fourth round of action on Saturday.

Coldwater entered round four at 3-0 in Pool B and needed a win to make the finals with the fifth round being a bye. In the way, was Western Buckeye League powerhouse Defiance. The Bulldogs beat the Cavaliers 45-24 to give Coldwater its only loss of the day.

St. Marys, 2-0 after getting the first-round bye in Pool A, faced Northwest Conference power Allen East. The Mustangs dominated the mats in the round, beating the Roughriders 51-18. With Allen East already in the championship match and with Defiance at 4-0, St. Marys needed a win over winless Milton-Union in round five to save its spot in the third-place match with the Cavaliers. St. Marys fought through and took a 42-24 win over the M-U Bulldogs to get to the third-place match.

The Cavaliers pulled away starting at 145 pounds with Corey Kuether, on his way to a 5-0 day, getting a pin, helping Coldwater jump out to a 33-14 lead before St. Marys took the top two weight classes to cut it to 33-23. Coldwater got two pins and a void win in the final three bouts to secure third place with a 51-23 win.

"We really didn't know what we had coming in," said Coldwater coach Chuck Alig. "We know the areas we have to work on. I'm proud of the kids and how they wrestled."

"We've got a lot of work to do," said St. Marys coach Larry Gruber. "We've got a lot of young kids out there. First match you go into, you find all the things you have to work on.

"For the first (day), it's not that bad and it's not great. You always expect more."

In the championship bout, Allen East jumped out big on Defiance, taking a 24-0 lead at one point and cruising to a 47-23 win over the Bulldogs to complete the 5-0 day.

"We wrestled a pretty good day," said Mustangs coach Mike Abbey. "First match of the day against Tinora, we looked a little sluggish. ... Our last two matches against St. Marys and Defiance, to beat two WBL teams, I'm real excited."

In the other placement matches, Tinora beat Lincolnview 47-36 to take fifth place, Carey edged Edgerton 40-36 for seventh and Fairborn snagged its first win of the day in the ninth-place match with a 48-29 win over Milton-Union.

In addition to Kuether, Dale Hamburg went 5-0 on the day at 140 for the Cavaliers. St. Marys posted one undefeated wrestler on the day with 285-pounder Marcus Neal.

Allen East had six wrestlers complete the perfect day. Brothers Grant and Matt Dues, who have ties to Coldwater through family, each went 5-0, with Grant running the table at 135 pounds and Matt at 189 pounds.

Coldwater heads to Celina on Thursday to join Bath in a trimatch at the Celina High School gymnasium.