The Our Lady of Mercy wrestlers won every match they wrestled last Wednesday against the Creekview High School Grizzles with either a pin or a technical fall. Pinning for the Bobcats were heavyweight Patrick Spillway, Tommy Kearns at 215 lbs, 171 pounder Will Simmons, Thomas Raville at 125 lbs and 119 pounder Tim Kennedy. Scoring a technical fall was Clint Ford at 112 lbs.

“I just could not ask for a better performance by our team. Tonight they were a perfect 7-0,” said head coach Francis Giknis. “I look forward to wrestling Creekview again on our home mats (January 8) when we have all of our wrestlers back.” The Bobcats were missing several wrestlers due to illness or injury and lost 42-41.

Next up for the Bobcats is Saint Frances High School at an away tri-match at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 6.

The McIntosh Wrestlers won second place at the South Gwinnett Comet Duals this past weekend. The Chiefs lost to perennial state wrestling powerhouse Grayson 33 – 44 in the championship match. Over the two day tournament the Chiefs competed in six additional matches beating Apalachee 58-18, Norcross 69-12, Shiloh 57-21 and North Forsyth 39-30 while suffering losses against South Gwinnett 28-49 and North Forsyth 36-42.

After the championship match Coach Nick Bellantoni said “I am really happy with the results. On Friday night we let the match against North Forsyth slip away that would have given us a number one seed on Saturday. But we came out on Saturday morning much more focused and with a clearer understanding of what we needed to do to make it to the championship round. The team responded and we came home with a second place trophy. That makes me happy.”
Jessy Toscanno at 135 lbs and Carl Scheumann 140 lbs led the Chiefs with perfect 7 – 0 records for the tournament. Toscanno had three wins by pin, and two technical falls and improved his record to 10-2 while Scheumann had three pins and improved to 12-2.

Other leading wrestlers include freshman Sean Carney at 275 lbs going 6-1 with three pins, Matt Carroll at 215 also at 6-1 with three pins, senior Landis Ford at 160 lbs had five wins and two losses with three pins, Erik Willanzheimer 189 5-2 with three pins and one technical fall and Matt Lein at 112, 4-3 with three pins.
Wrestlers finishing the tournament with three wins and four losses included Jarrod Chamblee at 119 lbs, Gavin Carlson 125, Jim Murrell 130, Andrew Graham 145 and Bryce Hughey 171.

Graham had the key win in the match against North Forsyth that propelled the Chiefs into the championship match. McIntosh was down by three points to North Forsyth going into the final bout and Graham needed to win by major decision, technical fall or pin. Ahead by a score of 12 -10 deep in the third period Graham pinned his opponent with less than one minute left in the bout.

“It is tournament experience like this that helps the team to learn what it takes to compete at the championship level,” said Bellantoni. “We faced some tough competition and we held our ground. This was a big step for us as we prepare for the South Metro Next weekend.”

The Chiefs are back in action at the South Metro Invitational at McIntosh High School on December 8 and 9. Matches start at 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday.

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