The first part of a long Saturday was heading out to watch Cpher wrestle in Dansville. This was, supposedly, an individual tournament. Not sure I understand that….they awarded team trophies at the end. But, schools could have more than one kid wrestle in each weight class.
There are 8 heavyweights - they are divided into 2 pools and they will wrestle the other 3 opponents and then have one final crossover match against the other pool; 1st -vs- 1st, 2nd -vs- 2nd.
Match 1: Goes up against the 2nd heavyweight from East Lansing. Cpher will face the varsity heavy in a week or two but just dominated this guy to end up winning by pin in the 2nd period. Tossed him around for all of the 1st period but couldn’t pin him - they had to stop the match because the kid has a bloody nose. In the 2nd period the kid got to his feet from the mat and Cpher just ‘helicoptered’ him back to the ground and he hit head and knees first and just stays down. Another injury delay. Kid does keep going and 10 seconds after that Cpher pins him.
Match 2: The opponent is from East Jackson - they walk out and I turn to another parent and go “this should be over quick”. The kid is a) a lot shorter and b) out of shape - pudgy is the key word here. And sure enough, 9 seconds after the match starts it is over. Shortest match of the year!
Match 3: Win this match and he wins the pool. But the opponent is Cpher’s kryptonite - a smaller (220 lb) faster kid who can wrestle. Cpher needs to learn that against this type of opponent he needs to slow the match down and take every opportunity to use his weight and size advantage against the kid by being on top of him and not losing control of him. His opponent, on the other hand, wants to go fast and create separation and tire Cpher out. And the match was fast moving and Cpher got pinned in about a minute.
Match 4: So it is a 2nd -vs- 2nd match up. And this match becomes Cpher’s longest match of the year - the first time there is no pin. It’s a strange but repetitive match. The kid from Grass Lake could get into Cpher’s legs and begin to take him down but it took a lot of effort and by the time he got Cpher down it turned out Cpher would be on top and get 2 points. The kid would escape and get a point and the process would begin again. Cpher won 16-8 and said he realized ealry on he wasn’t going to be able to pin this guy and just settled in and kept earning the points for the win.
Turns out the team took 2nd (out of 8 teams) and got a trophy. Cpher says he finished in a 3-way tie for first and will get a medal but I think either he or the person telling him this was confused; he finished in a tie for 2nd at 3-1. So he should get a medal in the mail.
Upcoming: There is a team meet on Wednesday but it looks like Cpher won’t wrestle; Everett doesn’t have a heavyweight. Then another tournament of some sort in Ithaca on Saturday
