Highland wrestlers place 18th at Mascoutah Invitational
The Highland Bulldogs wrestling team showed well at the Mascoutah Invitational on Friday, Dec. 16, and Saturday, Dec. 17, at Mascoutah High School.
HHS finished 18th overall in the 30-team field with 76 points, one spot ahead of 19th place O’Fallon — which scored 71.5 points — and two spots ahead of 20th place host Mascoutah (66.5 points).
“I think we finished 18th and I was pleased about that part (of the tournament),” Highland coach Shorty Ohren said. “We had a pretty decent first round (of matches), and, for as young as my team is, I was pleased with the end result, their individual results — and I was really kind of shocked.”
Highland had three wrestlers finish in the top eight of their weight classes as sophomore Gavin Merkle (106 pounds), sophomore Tyson Rakers (132 pounds), and Ashton Zobrist (195 pounds) all gave the Bulldogs points in their divisions.
At 106 pounds in the third-place match, Jackson Soney of Normal Community (18-3) defeated Merkle (13-5) by fall at 2:18 as Merkle took fourth place.
“Gavin just worked hard all weekend,” Ohren said. “He’s improved a lot from last year to this year, and he’s really stepped up his game.”
The Bulldogs also had a finalist at 132 pounds as Rakers advanced to the championship match.
Rakers (12-4) finished second in the 132-pound division as he bowed to Triad’s Colby Crouch (8-0) on a major decision (13-1). A tech fall victory over Vallen Thorpe of Normal Community advanced Rakers into the championship match.
“Crouch is the state champion from last year, and he’s just so much stronger (than Tyson). He didn’t get pinned (by him), so that shows us we can hang with him ... but he just overpowered him (Rakers),” Ohren said.
In the 195-pound division, Zobrist (13-4) prevailed over Logan Boyd of Morton (11-12) with a tech fall victory to take the seventh-place match.
“He (Zobrist) went after him, and he didn’t quit at all,” Ohren said.
Cody Throwbridge was the Bulldogs’ other top contributor as he placed 14th in the 152-pound class, after dropping a 14-7 second round consolation match to Gunnar Derhake of Quincy.
Ohren said he feels the success of the club at Mascoutah will carry over into next week when HHS hits the road Wednesday, Dec. 28, for the Lincoln Invitational Tournament over the Christmas break.
The Lincoln Tournament is the other big tournament the Bulldogs compete in during the heart of the season.
“Mascoutah and Lincoln are probably our two toughest tournaments, and we did well here (at Mascoutah), so hopefully that carries over. We’ve got a week and a half (to get ready), and some of the guys are banged up. That gives them a week and a half to heal up, and I’ve got confidence we’ll do decent up there,” Ohren said.
This story was originally published December 18, 2022 at 12:00 AM.