Strong weekend for Sturgis-area wrestling squads
KALAMAZOO — A handful of local schools competed at the Ron Russo Classic at Kalamazoo Central on Saturday.
The Russo Classic is an individual tournament which features brackets for both the boys and girls. Sturgis had three individuals win their respective flights on the day.
Jouse Galvan at 106 pounds, Lola Barkby (120) and Gracie Clark (155) each won all of their matches.
Barkby and Clark each won four matches on the day. Barkby had a bye then won three straight matches by pinfall, each of them took less than a minute of action. Clark finished with two pins on the day as well.
Kaiden Waldron (132) wrestled to second place for the Trojans. Angel Alvarez (157) came in third place while Aaron Castro (165) and Alex Valdez (190) both came in fourth place.
Constantine's Shayla Nickoson wrestled at the event as well. She finished third overall at 140, winning her final three matches. Nickoson beat Emily Bott (Kingsley) by a 7-2 decision and then won two straight bouts by pinfall to earn third.
Three Rivers also had two female wrestlers finish with placement finishes at the event. Alicia Thomas wrestled to fifth place at 130, Frida Beltran wrestled to fifth at 135.
Hopkins Invitational
Both Constantine and Mendon wrestling teams took part in the Hopkins Invitational on Saturday. This event was an individual tournament. Five Falcons finished with first-place finishes at the tournament.
Mendon also took part in the tournament. James Lux wrestled to first place at 215 pounds, he beat Constantine's Greg Crawford by pinfall in the third period.
Bennett VandenBerg won his flight at heavyweight, he beat Mitchell Swift of Delton-Kellogg in the finals by pinfall at 1:26, he finished 5-0. Gregg Reed won his flight at 190, he beat Ivan Fessenden of Shelby with a pinfall at 2:32 of the bout to finish 5-0. Also taking first place was Dathan Smith (175), Carter Godfrey (160) and Koltin Gross (138).
Earning second place on the day was Jace Vavul (120), Bear Geibe (132), Brody Jones (157) and Crawford (215). Wrestling to third place was Preston Like (126) and Michael Featherstone (144).
Mendon's Keegan Smith came in fourth place at 157.
Al Ritt Memorial at Dexter
The Three Rivers wrestling team finished first overall at the Al Ritt Memorial tournament held in Dexter.
Three Rivers beat Howell 78-0, Dexter 72-5, Fowlerville 45-22, Wayne Memorial 81-0 and West Bloomfield 60-6.
Piling up undefeated records on the day were Kale Parr (120), Jak Monroe (126), Ethan Moreland (132), Ayden Keller (144), Landon Moreland (165), Louis Smith (175), Jeremiah Detwiler (190) and Jaxon Smith (215).
White Pigeon second at Comstock
The White Pigeon wrestling team wrestled to second place at the Comstock Invitational held on Friday with 177 total points. Winning was Chelsea with 220 points. Mazzy Lambert at 113 was named as the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. He won his flight.
Evan Rudloff (150) finished first overall, beating John Chapman by pinfall in the finals. Caleb Lane wrestled to first place as well at 175, he beat Collin Abram of West Catholic in the finals by pin.
Seth Miller (215) came in first place as well, he beat Joe LaSalle of Olivet by major decision in the finals.
Coming in second was Chaz Underwood (285).
Drew Johnson (120, Hunter Pant (126), Blake Alldridge (165) and Taylor Stewart (215) each came in fourth place. Maddix Jancasz finished sixth at 132, as did Luke Hinkson at 144, Tiago Andrade (165) and David Stanley (190).
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: White Pigeon grapplers second at Comstock, other squads wrestle
