Imlay City’s Rylan Powers looks to escape thehold of Almont’s Landon Kruse last Thursday. photo by Kevin Kissane.
TRI-CITY AREA — The Almont and Imlay City wrestling teams went 1-1 and 0-2, respectively, in Blue Water Area Conference action last Thursday.
Almont is where the action unfolded.
The two rivals squared off against each other first. That encounter drew to a close with Almont ahead 52-30.
Mathew Dwyer and Issa Abu-Joudeh led Almont with wins by pinfall. Dwyer took 2:45 to stop Taylor Eagle at 140 pounds and Abu-Joudeh required 1:47 to conquer 215-pound foe Brandon Schafer.
Dallas Stanton (103), Gavin Dempz (119), Aiden Finn (125), Lane Jackson (152), Thomas Dyer (171) and Robbie Battani (189) provided Almont with victories by void.
Landon Kruse was the other Almont grappler who prevailed. He handed Rylan Powers a 9-1 setback at 145 pounds.
Austin Torres, Wesley Hampton and Hunter Mullins paced Imlay City with triumphs by pin. Torres needed 1:03 to defeat Nathan Liblong at 130 pounds; Hampton took 37 seconds to turn back 135-pound counterpart Brock Conger; and Mullins required 1:41 to best Mason Smith at 160 pounds.
Dakota Sandzik (112) and Joe Harper (285) added wins by void to Imlay City’s cause.
Almont also faced Cros-Lex that evening.
When the final scores were tallied, Cros-Lex posted a 54-27 win at Almont’s expense.
A group consisting of Dwyer, Kruse and Battani led Almont with victories by pin. Dwyer needed 32 seconds to defeat 140-pound adversary Colton Emerick; Kruse required 3:20 to down Jack Scheland at 145 pounds; and Battani took 1:08 to conquer 189-pound rival Codie Zimmerman.
Jackson (152) gave Almont a victory by void.
Dempz also contributed a triumph to Almont’s cause, accomplishing the feat on the strength of a 5-2 verdict over Connor Lilly at 119 pounds.
In the night’s other match, Richmond posted a 58-23 win against Imlay City.
Torres and Harper paced Imlay City with victories by pin. The former took 3:30 to down Austin Bergeon at 130 pounds and the latter needed 1:42 to beat 285-pound weight class foe Dan McKiernan.
Hampton (135) provided Imlay City with a triumph by void.
Mullins tacked on a win by technical fall to Imlay City’s cause. He outpointed Regan Rewalt, 19-4, at 160 pounds.
Kevin Kissane has been covering high school sports for the Tri-City Times since 1985. When not standing on a field or court with his camera and notepad, he enjoys golf, travel and family. Kevin is a 1980 graduate of Capac High School, and is also a grad of St. Clair Community College and earned a degree in journalism from Central Michigan University.
