Alton, Granite City wrestlers compete in tough Granite City Holiday Wrestling Tournament

GRANITE CITY – The spirit of the late William “Red” Schmitt was present at the 56^th edition of the Granite City Holiday Wrestling Tournament that Schmitt, who was the long-time Warrior wrestling coach and Alton High School wrestler that started the tournament in 1961, Thursday and Friday.

Schmitt died in August.

“Schmitty was a great man,” said GCHS coach George Kirgan. “He got Granite City’s program to where it is today.”

The host Warriors had three podium finishes, a second, third and fifth as the Warriors finished 14^th with 175 points; Alton finished 19^th at 128 points with a fifth, two sixths and a seventh among their podium finishes.

“It’s a tough tournament here,” Kirgan said. “There’s a lot of competition here and we have a lot of work to do before we get to the (IHSA Class 3A) regional in February (which the Warriors will host Feb. 4), A lot of our kids, especially the younger kids, were able to get a lot of good matches in; that’s going to help them down the road.”

Kansas City, Mo., area school Staley took the team championship with 371 points, ahead of Chicago Heights Marion Catholic (356.5), Neosho, Mo. (321), Whitfield of St. Louis (320) and Lafayette of St. Louis County (313.5); the second five included CBC (256.5), Christian Brothers of Memphis, Tenn. (250), Chicago Marist (221), Plainfield South of the Chicago area (210.5) and Huntley of the Chicago area (201.5). Other area teams included Collinsville (16^th with 161), Triad (21^st with 68) and Mascoutah (24^th with 51); the Granite City junior varsity also took part, but JV scores were not kept.

Redbird wrestlers who had podium finishes included Courteney Wilson at 145, who took the seventh-place bout at 145 by defeating Derrick Ashford of Chicago Marist 6-5; Nolan Wosczynski, who dropped the fifth-place bout at 160 to Huntley’s Juan Quiroz in a 7-5 decision; KeOntay Holmes, who won the fifth-place bout at 182 over Whitfield’s Noah Elmore with a 14-6 decision; and Keyondrick Russell, who dropped the fifth-place bout at 195 in a 1-0 decision to Mahomet-Semour’s Hunter Crowley.

Warrior wrestlers with podium finishes included Jared Skaggs, who lost to Collinsville’s Zach Warren at 152 due to a medical forfeit; Reide Wilson, who took the fifth-place bout at 170 over Collinsville’s Russell March 5-2; Kyle Thompson, who took the third-place bout at 195 over Neosho’s Johnny Meyer with a 4-3 decision; and Korinthian Nabors, who fell in the 285 title bout to Whitfield’s Max Darrah 6-1.

The Redbirds host Belleville West in a Southwestern Conference match at 6 p.m. Thursday, then are at the Newbill Invitational in Geneva Jan. 7. The Warriors host Kirkwood, Whitfield and Washington, Ill., in a quadrangular meet Thursday, Collinsville at 6 p.m. Friday and the Gateway to the Best Duals tournament at CBC Jan. 7.