Photo by Bill Roseberry

 

Photo by Bill Roseberry

 

Photo by Bill Roseberry

 

Photo by Bill Roseberry

Photo by Bill Roseberry

 

Photo by Bill Roseberry

ALTON — The Granite City Warriors rolled into Alton High on Thursday and left with a couple of wins.

The Warriors bested the Alton Redbirds 36-27 for a Southwestern Conference win and then topped Civic Memorial 45-29 to sweep a tough triangular. In the third match of the night CM picked up a 39-37 victory over Alton.

GCHS moved to 3-0 within the SWC with the win over the Redbirds. The Warriors have also beaten O’Fallon and East St. Louis. Alton dipped to 1-1 on the league slate. It beat East Side last week.

The match between Granite City and AHS turned at 132 pounds. The Birds bumped up Garrett Sims to 132 pounds from 126 and the Warriors bumped Josh Harsh down from 138 to 132 to square off. Alton came up a takedown short as Harsh picked up the 4-2 decision.

With that win GCHS jumped in front 33-24 and then Greg Marty’s 7-3 decision over Lawson Bruce at 138 sealed the dual victory.

The dual started at 152 pounds. Alton got decisions from Courteney Wilson, 3-0 at 152, and Zach Wilson, 6-4 at 160, to go in front 6-0. The Warriors answered with 3 straight victories to leap ahead 18-6. Andrew Hale got a pin at 170 in 1:43 and Brenden Davis got a pin in 1:41 at 195 with a Reide Wilson forfeit victory sandwiched in between at 182.

The first half of the dual closed with Kyle Hughes cutting it to 18-15 with a pin at heavyweight in 3:00 over Michael Whitfield.

A forfeit triumph at 106 and Nathan Nelson’s pin in 5:20 at 113 kicked off the second half of the dual for Granite City, pushing its lead to 30-15.

Gus Kodros earned a 7-2 decision over Ricky Garcia at 120 and Damien Jones pinned George Wallace in 2:23 at 126 to get the Redbirds within striking distance at 30-24, but Harsh’s victory at 132 stopped the bleeding for the Warriors.

Alton’s Pierre Evans earned a 9-3 major decision over Braden Dipple at 145 to close out the dual.

Granite City fell behind CM 12-0 to start that dual. The Eagles received pins from brothers Brady Christeson at 152 and Briley Christeson at 160 to kick things off.

The Warriors responded with 30 straight points from 4 pins and a forfeit win to go up 30-12. Jay Justice (170), Wilson (195), Chase Nelson (220) and Whitfield (285) all won via pin.

CM freshman Caleb Tyus earned an impressive major decision, 14-6, over GCHS senior Chris Santiago at 106 to start the second half of the dual.

Nathan Nelson then got a disqualification win over Housten Armbruster of the Eagles at 113 to push the lead to 36-16. Granite City also got a pin at 132 from Aaron Barnett and a 3-2 decision from Harsh over CM’s Dillon Dublo at 138 to seal the win.

The Eagles picked up a pin in 47 seconds from Peyton Bechtold at 145 to close out the dual.

The dual between CM and Alton started at 106 pounds. The Eagles raced out of the gates with a 15-0 lead. Caleb Tyus got a pin in 2:38 at 106, Armbruster won via forfeit at 113 and Caine Tyus battled back from behind to beat Gus Kodros of the Redbirds 7-5 in overtime at 120.

Sims and Jones answered for the Birds with pins at 126 and 132 to cut it to 15-12. Dublo then pinned Alton’s Lawson Bruce in 1:05 at 138 pounds to push the lead to 21-12 before Evans of AHS beat Bechtold 3-1 to end the first half of the dual with the Birds down 21-15.

Wilson drew Alton even with the Eagles at 21-21 with a pin over Brady Christeson at 152 in 1:30, but the Redbirds could never grab the lead.

Briley Christeson and Vinny Cafazza came up with big pins at 160 and 170 for CM and then after Alton won by forfeit at 182, the Eagles’ Hunter Thornton got a pin at 195.

AHS closed out the dual with Ryan Kane getting a 14-2 major decision at 220 and Hughes picking up his second pin of the night at heavyweight.

Evans, Wilson, Kane and Hughes all picked up 2 wins on the night for Alton. Nathan Nelson and Harsh earned multiple wins for the Warriors, while Caleb and Caine Tyus and Briley Christeson all picked up 2 wins for CM. AHS’ Hughes and Briley Christeson of the Eagles each won both of their bouts via pins.