Wrestlers off to good early start

by Andrew Schultz

Many of us know winter as the end of the football season and the beginning of the holidays. To others, it’s also the beginning of the Pittsford wrestling season. This season we have a fairly good lineup of wrestlers. The seniors are Chase Weber, and Ben Wines; four juniors in Taylor Hatfield, Mike Benedict, Luke Irwin, Kurtis Brackman; two sophomores in Brad Bolenbaugh, and Jesse Momenee; and two freshmen with Cody McLouth and Jacob Eichler.

Our senior wrestlers have been doing this for years and have a lot of experience and have also trained very hard and thoroughly to stay cool and calm during their matches. “Pure experience and wrestling for years gives a little bit of focus on what I need to do, and I never get pressured or scared when I go out there to wrestle. I’m really calm and ready to go ready to wrestle,” said Chase. Taylor wants to build on his successes of the past. “Freshman year (I was) 6th in state, last year I lost in overtime, so this year I’ve been working a lot harder. I’m upset and I’m going to do a lot better this year,” said Taylor.

Pittsford opened their season with a 41-12 win against Concord, as McLouth, Benedict, Brackman, Bolenbaugh, and Wines all pinned their man. Hatfield got a win as well, dominating his man and winning on points, 17-2. When we faced Reading, we had a few voids because of the low amount of people to fill the weight classes and lost 42-20. Pittsford ended up with a few wins out of this match, including pins by Hatfield, Weber, and Wines, and points victories by McLouth and Brackman.

Pittsford went to the Blissfield Invitational and racked up some good spots on the leader board. Brackman took 1st place in the 152 lb weight class, while Hatfield got another 1st place finish in the 160 lb weight class. Wines won his 1st place finish in the 189 lb weight class, and Weber got a 2nd place finish in the 171-pound weight class. “Overall our team did very well. They came out to wrestle and did what they needed to take home the trophy,” said Chase. The expectations set to a team don’t have to be high but for Pittsford it may be a little bit harder with the lack of wrestlers this year. “Team expectations aren’t really too high but for people to win match after match obviously weren’t going to win every meet because we don’t have many wrestlers,” said Hatfield.

Next up came Manchester and Saline. Saline couldn’t bring enough heat for us, as we held them off 38-36. Junior Luke Irwin, Hatfield, Weber, and Wines all had pins against Saline, with Benedict and Brackman winning on points. When state power Manchester stepped up to the mats we had a little bit harder time, losing 64-17. Hatfield and Wines collected pins, and Weber dominated his man to the tune of a 15-1 victory.