NORTON SHORES – The Reeths-Puffer wrestling team accomplished many things this season, but unfortunately a district title was not one of them.
The Rockets beat Muskegon in the first round of the Division 1 team district tournament at Mona Shores High School on Wednesday, but then ran into a great Rockford squad and lost 54-9 in the championship match.
“It’s sad,” said Rocket head coach Jared Fleming about the loss to Rockford. “Obviously we have some bittersweet feelings. But they overwhelmed us, and props to them because they wrestled really hard. They wrestled a tough schedule all year and their kids did a great job of wrestling tonight."
Reeths-Puffer got off to a good start in the tournament by defeating Muskegon 46-24.
R-P's Nathan Stafford (facing camera) battles in the 285-pound match. Photo/Andrew Johnson
Nathan Reeves (157 pounds), Owen Schab (175), Sage Secrest (190), Devin Welch (215) and Nathan Stafford (295) all won matches against the Big Reds. The Rockets also gained four wins by forfeit.
Obviously the championship match did not go nearly as well.
R-P’s Ian Cook (132) took the mat first for Reeths-Puffer and picked up a 7-2 victory to give the Rockets an early 3-0 lead.
But Rockford won the next 11 matches and built a huge 54-3 lead.
Of the 11 losses, Reeths-Puffer was pinned in five of the matches and lost via technical fall in two others.
R-P's Jake Rozycki, top, works on flipping his opponent. Photo/Andrew Johnson
In the final two matches of the night, R-P’s Mason Goodno (120) won 6-2 and Jake Rozycki (126) won 9-3, making the final score 54-9.
With the loss, the team portion of R-P's season comes to an end. The Rockets finished with a 23-10 overall dual meet record and their second consecutive O-K Green conference championship, which they clinched last weekend.
Now the attention will turn to individual districts.
Reeths-Puffer wrestlers will compete in the Division 1 individual tournament at Grand Haven on Saturday, in an every-man-for-himself format. Each wrestler will be trying to qualify for regionals and keep his season alive.
Rozycki tries to pin his opponent. Photo/Andrew Johnson
“It’s tough,” Fleming said about the team portion of the season being over. “Wrestling is looked at as an individual sport, but I think it’s one of the greatest team sports there are. You’re out here and can lose, but if you lose by less, you help your team. It’s an awesome thing, and now it does become more selfish I guess, because we have no more team stuff."
Fleming is proud of how far his team grew throughout the season, culminating in the conference championship.
“I’m so proud of the guys and how far they’ve come,” the coach said. “They have nothing to be ashamed of, from when they started until now. For the seniors, they’ve come so far since I first started coaching them as sophomores. I’m just proud of the guys and how hard they fought tonight and all season. Nobody can ever take that conference title away from them.”
