Successful season for Manchester Youth Wrestling teams

Manchester wrestlers participated in the NuWay State Championships in Kalamazoo last month, and three qualified for Nationals last week at Lansing Center. Pictured is the entire Youth Wrestling Club at the beginning of its season.

by Marsha Chartrand

The Manchester Youth Wrestling Club has completed their year, which started last October and concluded April 15 with NuWay National finals last week at the Lansing Center.

Parent Jessica Lawson said that the Youth Wrestling starts mid-October and runs through December, and competition for the MyWay goes from January through March. “We had a total of 50 kids this year (in both programs),” she said, “and we hope to just continue to grow the program and get more kids participating.”

Kids who participate in the Youth Wrestling are normally in kindergarten through eighth grade, although Lawson said this year they also had a member of the Young Fives class in the program! The head coach for the youth program is James Tobias, who attended and wrestled with Manchester High School and went on to wrestle in college at the University of Michigan, where he graduated.

This year, 11 kids qualified for state competition on March 24–26, which was considered a great turnout for our small district. Those wrestlers were: Logan Velez, Thomas Dyer, Colt Vainner, Logan Lawson, Jackson Norgaard, Skylar Morgan, Vince Budd, Vince Klapperich, Russell Rickert, Graham Greenstein, and Violet Klapperich. And of those 11, three received medals at the end of the tournament: Skylar Morgan, Thomas Dyer, and Violet Klapperich.

Having two from the girls’ division receive statewide medals was a point of pride for the team.

Three wrestlers went on to the National Championships of NuWay last weekend — Skylar Morgan, who ended up taking first place in the girls’ division, and Thomas and Dylan Dyer. Thomas took third place in his class.

“It’s a big deal to wrestle at NuWay,“ Lawson explained. “It’s a choice; the wrestlers can choose to attend, and there are kids from all over who come to compete in the nationals. So it’s a big deal and the competition is tough.”

Congratulations to these young wrestlers, who have a bright future ahead of them!

Skylar Morgan with her first-place belt at NuWay last weekend. She pinned both her opponents to win her first NuWay title!

Thomas Dyer with his National medal

Violet Klapperich with her State medal.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.