Erie Holiday Invite

By Jesse Kennedy

            The Fulton Wrestling team traveled to Erie Saturday to compete in the Erie Holiday Tournament against 13 other teams.  The teams were Newman, E/P, Orion, Polo, Princeton, Sherrard, AFC, Rockford Lutheran, Morrison, Rock Island, Moline, Allemen, and E/P JV.  They finished in the middle of the pack at seventh place.

The Steamers had two runner-up finishes with Travis VanZuiden at 112 and Kyle Wayne at 125.  Travis recorded a second period fall and a 7-0 decision before falling in the finals against the number three-ranked kid in the state.  Kyle flattened two kids one in the second period and the other in under a minute before losing in the finals.

            Jon Conover placed 4th for the steamers at the 145-pound weight class.  Jon was on a pinning spree in the tournament, pinning three opponents' shoulders to the mat, two in the first period and one in the third. 

            Zach Ryder at 140lbs and Nick Hoogheem at 171lbs each finished with a 5th place medal.  Zach suffered a hard loss in the quarterfinal round and had to wrestle all the way back for fifth.  He stuck two kids in the opening period and squeaked out a 3-0 decision.  Nick suffered a loss in the opening round and also showed true determination to wrestle all the way back for his medal.  He recorded three fall all in different periods.

            Jerritt Hartman finished in sixth place since he wasn't allowed to wrestle his final match because he reach his maximum amount of matches for a day (five), the fifth and sixth place match would have been his sixth match so he wasn't able to wrestle.  Jerritt was giving-up about 60lbs to everyone he was wrestling and still was able to stick three foes throughout the tournament, all in the first period of his matches.