BETHALTO – Civic Memorial’s boys’ wrestling team had a very good day on Saturday, taking three firsts in going on to the team championship of the Steve Bradley Invitational tournament, held Saturday at the CM gym.
The Eagles won with 190.5 points, with Vandalia second at 167 points, Bloomington was third at 148.5 points, fourth place went to Stanford Olympia, with 132 points, finishing in fifth place was Mattoon with 127 points, Benton was sixth with 118 points, Murphysboro came in seventh with 115 points, in eight place was Jacksonville at 110 points, Waterloo was ninth with 109 points and rounding out the top ten was Oakville of south St. Louis County, with 91.5 points.
Highland finished 11th with 85.5 points, Jersey came in 13th with 74.5 points, East St. Louis placed 15th with 70 points, in 17th place was East Alton-Wood River, who had 53 points, Alton came in 21st with 29 points and the CM B team was 22nd with 12 points.
The three individual champions for the Eagles were Avery Jaime at 126 pounds, pinning Jeremiah Pulliam of Goreville at 1:07, Bryce Griffin at 165, defeating Bloomington’s Maddox Kirts 13-5, and Luke McCoy at 175 pounds, winning by fall over Keyshaun Harris of Springfield at 1:58. Bradley Ruckman finished second at 120 pounds, losing the final to Tyson Waughtel of Carlyle by fall at 49 seconds.
James Wojcikiewicz finished third in the 157-pound division, winning over Sean Murphy of Mascoutah 6-4, while Brody Johnson finished fourth at 108 pounds, losing in the third-place match to Jersey’s Hunter Hodge 3-1. Kale Hawk was fifth at 215 pounds, winning the fifth-place match over Mitchell Clapp of Mattoon by fall at 46 seconds.
For EAWR, Jamal Burgess finished second at 132 pounds, losing to Gokkham Yurdanidze of Oakville in the final by fall at 59 seconds, while Drake Champlin finished second at 215 pounds, being defeated by Oliver Cooley of Jacksonville 4-3.
The Flyers saw Promise Houston finish fourth in the consolation bracket at 126 pounds, losing the third-place bout to Marquez Singleton of Alton 13-11, while Joshua White won the consolation bracket at 144 pounds, winning over Matthew Maloney of Goreville by technical superiority 16-0 at 4:34. Pierre Watson came in fifth at 150 pounds, winning the bout over Russell Tate of Centralia 16-11, and Corey Robinson was fourth at 165 pounds, losing the third place match to James Cotton of Jacksonville 3-1 in sudden death overtime.
Among the highlights for the Bulldogs was Gavin Merkle finishing fifth at 112 pounds, winning the bout over Zane Stanley of Benton by fall at 3:10, Dalton Bailnt won the consolation bracket at 126 pounds, winning over Blake Habel of Oakville with a pin at 1:32, Tyson Rakers won the championship at 152 pounds, winning the title bout over Aiden Blackburn of Mattoon 4-3 in overtime, Thomas Mitchell was fourth at 175 pounds, falling to Connor Chin of Jersey by fall at 4:52 and Ashton Zobrist was second at 190 pounds, losing the final to Jaxson Mathenia of Waterloo 10-2.
Hodge’s third-place finish at 106, along with Chin’s third-place finish at 175 were among the highlights for the Panthers, who also saw Peyton Wittman come in second in the consolation bracket at 157 pounds, losing to Cody L. Stevens of Springfield by fall at 1:05, while James Busch was fourth at 285 pounds, losing the third-place match by fall to Julien Tanner of Murphysboro at 3:07.
Singleton’s third-place finish in the consolation bracket of 126 pounds was a highlight for the Redbirds, while Azuriah Howell went 2-2 at 150 pounds, as did Christian Brown at 157 pounds and Levi Merioles at 170 pounds, while Jacob Brooks placed fifth in the consolation bracket at 285 pounds, pinning Tyson Wilson of Benton at 1:45 in the fifth place bout.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
