MASCOUTAH -- The Alton Redbirds brought home some more hardware from the Mascoutah Invitational Tournament this weekend.
The Redbirds finished second out of 27 teams with 204.5 points at the two-day tournament that ended on Saturday at Mascoutah High School. The second-place effort earned the Redbirds a trophy.
“Coming in, I thought we would have a chance of finishing with a trophy,” Alton coach Eric Roberson said. “I’m proud of the way we wrestled. I thought our kids wrestled hard. We scored a lot of bonus points in the tournament, which got us a nice lead for a little while, but it was a complete team effort. Pretty much all of our wrestlers scored some points for us and won some matches for us.”
So far this decade, the Redbirds have won four championships, placed second twice and a got a third-place finish at Mascoutah. Alton won titles in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014, finished runner-up in 2012 and came in third in 2015.
O’Fallon won the tournament title for the second year in a row, placing first with 224.5 points.
The Greater Alton area had a pair of individual champions. East Alton-Wood River senior Drew Sobol came in first at 106 after beating Collinsville’s Jalen May 3-2 in the championship match. Roxana’s Brett Nyswonger won the heavyweight crown with a 2-1 win over Triad’s Christian North in the title match and earned an award for the tournament’s fastest pin.
EAWR finished 12th with 106 points. Zac Blasioli finished second after losing to Collinsville’s Jacob Blaha 5-3 in the 132 championship match, Jake Erslon got third place at 160 after pinning Jersey’s Kyzick Bell in the third-place match and Jon Wright came in fourth at heavyweight after he lost 4-0 to Quincy’s Matthew Dade in the third-place match.
Roxana finished 16th with 90 points. Besides Nyswonger, Alex Maguire and Drew Huff were the other wrestlers who placed. Maguire finished third at 138 after beating Collinsville’s Patrick Grzywacz by disqualification in the third-place match and Huff placed seventh at 182, beating Frankfort’s Brandyn Kahl by injury default.
Civic Memorial finished in a tie for 19th with Mississippi Valley Conference foe Highland with 57 points. The Eagles had a pair of placewinners -- Brandon Carpenter (3rd, 195) and Hudson Brown (5th, 120).
Both EAWR and CM will be back in action after the New Year. The Eagles will wrestle a triangular home match against Waterloo and Jersey on Jan. 3 and the Oilers will wrestle against Waterloo and Cahokia on Jan. 5 at home.
Roxana will be competing in another tournament on Dec. 29-30, when it participates in the Lincoln Tournament.
Alton will wrestle against CBC, Chaminade and Whitfield on Thursday at CBC.
“They’re some strong Missouri schools,” Roberson said. “We like to go to that side of the river and expose our kids to some Missouri powerhouses.”
The Redbirds are 5-3 in dual matches this season. They were coming off a win over Collinsville on Thursday.
“We showed today (at Mascoutah) that we might have a possibility of being strong in some tournament formats,” Roberson said. “Dual meet wise, we’re still putting it together and still trying that we have a good dual-meet team.”
Alton had eight wrestlers place at Mascoutah. Garrett Sims (113), Courteney Wilson (145) and Keyondrick Russell (195) finished second, Christian Everage (170) and Keontay Holmes (182) placed third, Hunter Hobbs (126), Nolan Wosczynski (160) and Ryan Kane (285) finished fifth.
“I was impressed with all of the kids,” Roberson said. “Everybody wrestled well and everybody fought. Even in matches where we were losing, we battled back and we were going through bonus points all of the time.”
Sims was pinned by Mattoon’s Trevor Edwards with 30 seconds left in the third period in the 113 final, Wilson lost 6-5 to O’Fallon’s Mike Faulkner in the 145 championship match and Russell fell 9-4 to O’Fallon’s Kobey Bosworth in the 195 title match.
“I know Courteney, Garrett and Keyondrick have never been to the finals of this tournament before and they pushed themselves all the way through the semifinals and the finals,” Roberson said.
The Alton coach said he was happy with the efforts from Everage, Holmes, Hobbs, Wosczynski and Kane.
“Those guys who placed are more important,” he said. “The guys who came back and get the thirds, the fourths and the fifths. Those guys make you a complete team. We’re proud of all of them.”
MASCOUTAH INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT
Team results
O'Fallon 224.5, Alton 204.5, Collinsville 186, Carbondale 172, Mattoon 157.5, Triad 152.5, Quincy 139, East St. Louis and Murphysboro 128, Anna-Jonesboro 110.5, Mascoutah 106.5, EA-WR, 106, Frankfort 103, Mount Vernon 101.5, Marion 94, Roxana 90, Waterloo 85, Jersey 68.5, Civic Memorial and Highland 57, Belleville East 54.5, Oakville 54, Centralia 48, Jacksonville 46.5, Champaign Central 46, Herrin 44, Mascoutah JV 15.
