With a freshly opened gymnasium and a packed house, the Berkshire Badgers certainly had a home advantage Dec. 22 as they took on their rival, the Cardinal Huskies.
Match photos click here.
With a freshly opened gymnasium and a packed house, the Berkshire Badgers certainly had a home advantage Dec. 22 as they took on their rival, the Cardinal Huskies.
The Badgers defeated the Huskies 52-21 with victories in 9 of 13 matches.
Those were by Colin Hering (106), Charlie Prosser (120), Charlie Dixon (126), Kason Greenwald (132), Ami Kosova (138), Johnny Heiden (150), Josh Brown (157), Alex Munn (165) and Preston Garling (190).
The Huskies were victorious in matches won by Benjamin Bolton (144), Josh Ripley (175), Andrew Tucholski (215) and Anthony Columbus (285).
“Overall, I thought we wrestled well,” said Berkshire Head Wrestling Coach Adam Lange. “We always talk about effort on the team. To us, that’s the most important thing. Wins and losses, you know everybody losses; there’s nobody that’s perfect.
“It’s how you lose and the effort you put forth, and I think our guys really showed a lot of effort, constantly wrestling. Very pleased overall, top to bottom.”
In addition to the importance of having a process focused mentality, after the match, Badgers wrestlers commented on the amazing atmosphere.
“It was really fun, it was really exciting,” said Berkshire wrestler Colin Hering. “It’s nice to see them (the students) enjoy it, and it’s just really cool.”
Berkshire Athletic Director Brian Hiscox explained how the idea to hold this very fun and exciting event was developed.
“It was something we talked about with our wrestling coaches,” Hiscox said. “We’ve seen other schools run these events. Just kind of brings awareness to high school wrestling.
“The way the sport is structured, with tournaments mostly, a lot of students don’t actually get to go and watch their fellow students wrestle. A lot of students go to football, a lot of students go to basketball and volleyball. We wanted to give our students an opportunity to come see our wrestlers wrestle. So we put the match right in the middle of the school day.”
Added Coach Lange, “This was a lot of fun. I really enjoy cross-town rivalries, and over the summer our athletic director, Brian Hiscox, kind of had the idea like, hey, let’s do a dual match in school (during the school day).
“We’re very proud of the new facility. As you can see, it’s beautiful, and we just thought, what a better way to show it off than having all the students come in along with our cross town rival, Cardinal. It was a lot of fun, a lot of excitement for us.”
The start of the wrestling season has been very exciting for both the Badgers and the Huskies wrestling programs.
Huskies wrestlers have had great success at the various tournaments they have participated in.
In particular, at the recent Russ Ward tournament, which was hosted by Cardinal, the Huskies wrestling team had many wrestlers place, including Clayton Carmen (5th – 106), Slater Champlin (4th -126), Anthony Columbus (6th – 285) and Angelo Kozelka (3rd – 132). In addition, Josh Ripley finished second in the 175-pound weight class, while Andrew Tucholski finished first in the 215-pound weight class.
In the most recent tournament at Pymatuning Valley, the Huskies wrestling team finished 5th overall. In fact, Andrew Tucholski won the MVP trophy for the tournament.
The Badgers return to the mat Dec. 29 as they travel to Defiance, Ohio, for the Defiance Tri-State Border War Invite.
Cardinal returns to the mat after the holidays Jan. 7 for the Jackson-Milton Wrestling tournament.
