The Reeths-Puffer wrestling team came very close to winning the Sparta Invitational on Saturday.
The Rockets battled down to the end and fell only a half point short. They tied Fruitport for second place with 172 points, behind first-place Cedar Springs, which finished with 172.5.
R-P only had one weight class champion, but piled up a lot of points with solid performances throughout the weight classes. Of the 16 Reeths-Puffer wrestlers in the tournament, 10 placed in the top six in their respected classes.
Landon Learn
“This was the first tournament where we were at full strength, and it showed,” said R-P head coach Brad Cowles. “I am very happy with how the boys competed. They showed lots of grit and what Reeths-Puffer wrestling is all about.”
R-P freshman Landon Learn continued his pretty amazing success, posting a 3-0 record and winning the title in the 113-pound weight class. Learn, ranked fifth in the state in his weight class, defeated Kent City’s Chad Kik (ranked third in Division 3) 4-0 in the championship match.
Learn is now 25–0 on the season.
Reeths-Puffer had two wrestlers take second in their weight classes – Jake Rozycki (150 pounds) and Andrew Corradin (175).
Jake Rozycki
Rozycki went 3-1, winning his first three matches then losing 3-0 to Byron Center’s Hunter Pulawski in the finals.
“Jake had his best outing of the season thus far, scoring early and wrestling with a purpose,” Coach Cowles said.
Corradin also won his first three matches before falling to Tri-County’s Tristan VanTimmeren 7-1 in the finals.
Andrew Corradin
“Andrew showed up on Saturday on a mission,” Cowles said about Corradin. “He wrestled very well, defeating two conference foes en route to the finals.”
Finishing third in their weight classes were Travis Henderson (12) and Hunter Eek (144).
Taking fourth was Tanner Cowles, who also competed at 144 and lost to Eek, his teammate. Devin Welch (285) also finished fourth.
Cory Judd (126 pounds), Aiden Neal (165) and Lyric Stewart (190) all finished sixth.