Wrestlers score high in holiday tourneys

The team and Coach Steve Vlcek show their elation at wrestler Drew Gebhardt's  (pictured at right of photo) big tie-breaking win over Carson City Crystal. (Photos courtesy of Stacy Fry)

It has been an exciting and successful holiday break for the Manchester wrestlers. At the Manchester Varsity Invitational on Thursday, the team took second to Woodhaven, falling short only in the final match.

Three wrestlers (Reese Fry, Drew Gebhardt, and Jacob Shelby), went 5-0 on the day, and all the wrestlers stepped up strong on the mats and faced many ranked kids from other teams.

On Saturday, the wrestlers went to the Bryan Sosinski Memorial Wrestling Invitational, held at Lawton High School. As a team the grapplers took a strong second place again, going undefeated in five duals, but this time Clinton was the overall victor by points, as we didn't face them.  Final scores for Manchester were vs Constantine 62 -16; vs White Pigeon 48-23; vs Carson City Crystal 30-27; vs Lawton 46-28; and vs Schoolcraft 63-15.

"We had an exciting close match win over CCC that came down to the final match," reports parent Stacy Fry. "Drew Gebhardt maintained under pressure, and pulled out the win against CCC's Nolan Datema, after a 27-27 tie." Fry added that Collin McCaffrey and Simon Lato had "exciting, on-your-feet matches" that helped put Manchester on top to claim the narrow three point victory.

"We had several go undefeated there also including Reese Fry, Drew Gebhardt, Charlie Depp, and Jacob Shelby," Fry concluded.

Varsity Captains this year are senior wrestlers Reese Fry (who is committed to Brown University to wrestle), Cole Bruestle, and Blake Belaire.

The varsity and JV team rosters include:

103 Drew Gebhardt (So)

112 Reese Fry (Senior)

119/125 Jacob Shelby (So) Adam Pringle (Fr)

130 Grant Tungate (Jr)

135 Blake Belaire (Senior)

140 Cole Bruestle (Senior)

145 Josh Bunn (Jr)

152 Derek Guenther (So) / Max Wagner (Jr)

160 Nick Phillips (So)

171 Collin McCaffrey (So)

185 Travis Withrow (Jr)

215 Charlie Depp (Senior)

HWT Simon Lato (So)

JV

Jacob Snowden (Fr)

Jake Buono (Fr)

Brayden Hayes (Jr)

Phoenix Waters (Fr)

Alec Farmer (Jr)

John Zigila (Senior 1^st year wrestler)

Skylyer Zink (Senior 1^st year wrestler)

Jesse Tedder (Senior 1^st year wrestler )

Cody Engel (Jr)

John Keast (Fr)

Jonas Chandler (So)

Jacob Kurgin (So)

To keep up with all of the most current photos of the Manchester High School wrestling team, check the Facebook page at Manchester HS Wrestling Photos/Updates 2017/18

Reese Fry with a quick takedown and pin over CCC in Saturday's tournament

Drew Gebhardt with the win over CCC.

Cole Bruestle with a takedown against Constantine.

Nick Phillps against Constantine
(All photos courtesy of Stacy Fry)

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.