St. Francis' Anderson claims crown

FROM STAFF REPORTS

March 10, 2008 04:00 am

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AUBURN HILLS -- The plan going into the state wrestling final was to keep attacking.

Traverse City St. Francis senior Andy Anderson kept attacking until he came home with a state title.

Anderson posted an 11-3 major decision over Coty Marcoux on Saturday to win the 160-pound Division 4 crown at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

"It feels amazing," said Anderson, who finished with a 43-1 record. "When you've worked this hard, to finally get here is a great feeling."

Not only did Anderson win the title, but the way he won it was impressive. Of his four wins, three were major decisions and the fourth was by technical fall. St. Francis coach Mike Simaz said Anderson had more than 20 takedowns in the four matches, won by a combined score of 67-17.

"He wrestled hard and never let up the whole way," Simaz said. "We had the same game plan all weekend, which was 'attack, attack, attack.'

"If he couldn't turn a guy, he just let him up and took him down again until the other guy thought he was out of the match. That's what we did all weekend."

"(Coach) always taught me to wrestle for the full six minutes," Anderson added. "No giving up, no letting down."

Anderson said the strategy he used in the state final played to his strengths.

"I work best in a scramble," he said. "You just have to keep the other kid moving."

Anderson, who won his 150th career match at the team district tournament, was third in the state at 152 pounds last season. His only loss this season was to Chris Eggert of Dundee, who won the Division 3 title at 160.

"He's a hard-working kid and he's done everything he set out to do," Simaz said. "He's a pleasure to coach. I'm going to miss him next season, that's for sure."

Also in Division 4, Mancelona's Cody Sehl placed fourth at 285.

Sehl (53-2) bounced back from his first loss of the season to pin Carnell Porter-Giles of New Haven in 2:22 to reach the consolation final, where he was pinned by Rudy Spalding of Hesperia in 57 seconds.

Manton's Jim Dyer was fifth at 189 pounds, finishing his season with a 19-4 mark. He opened competition on Saturday with an 8-4 loss to Hudson's Gabe Elliott before beating Travis Morrill of Union City by a 15-5 major decision.

Charlevoix's Mat Golovich (44-12) was sixth at 140. Golovich topped A.J. Constable of Sand Creek by major decision (11-3) before losing by pin to Kent City's Jeff Sabin (2:01) and 8-0 by major decision to Montabella's Travis Perkins.

Three Gaylord wrestlers placed in the Division 2 portion of the meet.

Andrew Olds led the way, taking fourth at 135 to finish the season with a 56-10 record. Olds beat Swartz Creek's Zach Stowe (pin in 3:40) and Dakota Cooley of Chelsea (6-3) before dropping a 7-2 decision to Sean Bagby of Tecumseh.

Gaylord's Danny Sharrad claimed fifth place at 125 pounds with a forfeit victory over Josh Dormer of Eaton Rapids. Sharrad, who went 56-5, was coming off a narrow 5-1 loss to Jake Walters of St. Johns.

At 140 pounds, Gaylord's Shane Gapinski took eighth place. Gapinski was 52-11 this season.

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