Triad Wrestlers Finish Fourth at Chatham Invite
By Mark Jurgena, Reporter
The Triad wrestling team ventured north to the Titan Invite in Chatham for their first big meet of the year last Saturday. They returned home with a 4th place finish.
“Coming into the day we really had a goal of top three but we had three starters out of the lineup for different reasons today so all things considered, I felt like we wrestled pretty decent, but I still feel like with the kids we had here we could’ve possibly gotten in the top three,” said coach Russ Witzig.
Garrett Bakarich was the individual champion at 152 lbs. He won all three of his matches by pinfall in the 1st period.
“He was pretty dominant. If there was an MVP today, they didn’t give one at this tournament, but to me if there was an MVP it was him,” Witzig said.
He pinned wrestlers from Peoria Central, Grayslake Central and Decatur MacArthur on his way to the crown.
Triad’s Collin North got 2nd place at 220 lbs. he pinned his first two opponents from Peoria Central and O’Fallon. He was pinned in the finals by Chatham-Glenwood’s Conner Miller. Miller is currently ranked 3rd in the state by Illinoismatmen.com.
Triad garnered three 3rd place finishes for the team standings.
Chase Hall at 120, Jordan Clines at 160, and Kaden Marmon at 182.
The Knights picked up a 4th place finish by Jackson Hampton at 145 lbs.
“Jackson Hampton took 4th at 145 which I felt was pretty good for him. He was bumped up a weight class just to fill in where we had a hole,” said Witzig.
Brennan Martin at 170 picked up a 5th place finish.
Devin Pace at 106 and Rowan Clark at 113 finished 6th in their weight classes.
Three Knights finished in 7th to round out the scoring for Triad. They were Aiden Postma at 126, and Nate Engler at 285.
Three Triad wrestlers were entered as added wrestlers in their weight classes but it was designated prior to the tournament that their result would not count in the team standings.
Sam Wheeler took third at 152 and Ethan Zawodniak took fourth at 120. Also Garon Viviano took seventh at 132.
“I already told the kids our problem isn’t big, our problem is little things that can be fixed pretty easily. I feel pretty good going forward. Not that we’re going to be world beaters but we’re going to be competitive every time out,” said Witzig.
In the team race, Chatham-Glenwood got first with 191.5 points while East Peoria was second with 186. Grayslake Central was third with 174 points. Triad was fourth with 148. There were 14 schools at the meet.
On November 20th Triad traveled time Mt. Olive for a dual meet and came back 72-6 winners.
