Reid Westfall takes third; 5 other area wrestlers place in top 5 at Leslie Invite
LESLIE — At one of the toughest tournaments in the state of Michigan, the Jonesville Comets and Reading Rangers traveled to Leslie in search of medals and experience before heading into conference championship week.
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A total of six wrestlers would end up on the podium at the end of the event, and three other wrestlers would earn sixth place when the Todd Stern Blackhawk Invitational concluded.
Hillsdale County was led by Reading freshman Reid Westfall. Westfall placed third overall in the 106-weight class. After receiving a bye in championship round one, Westfall won by Major Decision 10-0 in the quarterfinals. Westfall would fall in the semifinal matchup but would bounce back with a technical fall (15-0) over Keyshawn Bean of Sexton in the consolation semifinals. Earning a bid to the third-place match, Westfall won in a challenging 4-3 decision match against Delton Haley of Perry.
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Two county wrestlers would earn trips to the third-place match in their weight class. In the 175-pound weight class, Lukas Strine of Reading had a pinfall in round one and a quarterfinal 9-2 decision win to make it to the semifinals. Strine would wrestle Jayce Curtis of Kellogg in the semifinal and would ultimately come up short. Wrestling in the consolation bracket, Strine defeated Brendan Barrett of Springport 6-3 to advance into the medalist round. Strine would have a tough matchup with Malcolm Smith of Martin High School, losing by 4-0 decision.
Strine would take the podium alongside Jonesville senior Jordan VanSickle. VanSickle wrestled his way to a fifth place finish. This included a pinfall in round one, a pinfall (in 49 seconds) during consolation round two and an 11-6 decision in consolation round three. VanSickle would fall in the consolation semifinals before earning a pinfall in the first period of the fifth-place match against Brendan Barrett of Springport.
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Moving up a weight class, Jonesville senior Isaac Shively (190) would wrestle for third place after a hard-fought journey. Shively would earn a pinfall and a 7-3 decision on his way to a semifinal appearance. After losing in the semifinals, Shively fought his way through a 1-0 decision victory, holding on the final point as time expired in the third period. In the third-place match, he faced Ben Kelenske of Olivet. The D3 No. 9 ranked 190 wrestler (Michigan Grappler) lost to Shively in the quarterfinals. Kelenske did get revenge via pinfall, but Shively would still earn a podium spot in fourth place.
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Also, in the 190-weight class, Reading freshman Isaac Westfall took fifth overall. Westfall won by pinfall in two straight matches (including a fall in 10 seconds). He earned a 7-2 win in the semifinals. He would fall in the semifinals to Colton Symons of New Lothrop. In the consolation semifinals, he would drop the play in match for third place to Ben Kelenske. Westfall would rebound from those two losses with an impressive decision win (6-1) over Udter Tweh of St. Louis High School.
Another area wrestler would take fifth overall. Comet junior Carson Playford took fifth in the 132-weight class. Playford won his way through prelim and into championship round one. He won again with a pinfall after 2:35. In the quarterfinals, Playford won by 8-4 decision over Adam Grebe of Manchester. Playford would wrestle Haylen Buell of Martin in the semifinals, losing via pinfall. After a loss in the consolation semifinals, Playford fought his way into fifth place with a 7-1 decision victory over Dylan Pauline of Thornapple Kellogg.
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Playford and VanSickle were not alone in their fights for fifth place. Blake Ryan (113) had two pinfall victories and a 15-10 decision win along the way to punching a ticket into a fifth-place match appearance, but he could not wrestle in the final round. Ryan would end his day with a sixth-place finish.
Cody Nichols (120) had three pinfalls (all within period one) on his way to an appearance in the medalist rounds. Nichols was unable to continue and would take sixth overall.
Tyler Milks fought his way to a fifth place match appearance in the 138-weight class. Milks had a pinfall and an 8-7 decision win in the quarterfinals on his way to a medalist match appearance. Milks would fall to Carter Foster of Lelie in the final match, ending his day taking sixth overall.
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For the Comets, several wrestlers had wins during their day at the Blackhawk Invitational. Harrison Packer (106) had a pinfall victory. Randall Kast (126) had a 22-14 major decision win and a void win. Austin Bowers (165) had two pinfall wins within the first minute of his matches. The senior's day was ended early after an injury took him out of round three of the consolation bracket.
Evan McColley (215) earned a pinfall within 40 seconds of his first match and had a pinfall within two minutes of his second consolation round match. The senior Comet would eventually fall to Ramon Anguiano of St. Louis in the third round of consolations.
At 285, Cooper Stevens took a pinfall victory in championship round one in 34 seconds. Stevens would end up wrestling in the consolation round two match but was unable to finish the match after an injury.
For the Rangers, Carter Bell (120) had a pinfall win in the consolation rounds. Domanick Magowan (132) had a pinfall just over a minute into his second prelim match. Jeremiah Bedford (144) had a pinfall in championship round one.
Caiden Baker (157) had a pinfall in championship round one. Connar Rudy (165) had a pinfall in the prelims and won a consolation match via a 5-4 decision. Austin Neely (215) had a win in consolation round one via pinfall just over a minute into the match. Cayleb Vanalst (285) won a pinfall under 30 seconds in the consolation rounds.
Championship Week
The Reading Rangers will host the Big 8 for the league championships on Saturday, Feb. 3. Tickets can be purchased in-person and are five dollars. Wrestling starts at 9 a.m.
Jonesville will travel to a Cascades opponent to participate in the Cascades championships for the first time as league members. The location was yet to be determined at the writing of this article. The event will take place on Friday, Feb. 2.
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Reid Westfall takes third; 5 other area wrestlers place in top 5 at Leslie Invite
