GODFREY -- Eric Roberson sets a simple goal for his Alton wrestling team in Southwestern Conference matches.

“I don’t have any expectations,” the Alton coach said. “We just go out there and wrestle.”

After cruising past Belleville West 53-24 in a home SWC match on Thursday, the Redbirds are inching closer to another winning season in league play. Alton improved to 3-1 with three matches remaining.

“Belleville West and us have a little bit of a rivalry,” Roberson said. “It’s usually a close match. The last few years, it’s been really competitive. Our kids did a great job tonight. I’m proud of them.”

AHS’ next conference match will be against Edwardsville on Jan. 12 at home. Edwardsville, which beat O’Fallon on Wednesday, is in first place in the league standings at 4-0. Thursday’s win over the Maroons put the Redbirds in a second-place tie with O’Fallon.

Alton also has O’Fallon (Jan. 19) and Belleville East (Jan. 25) left on its conference schedule. Last year, the Redbirds finished in a tie for third with Collinsville in the SWC at 4-3.

“We expect to be competitive in every conference match we have,” Roberson said.

Alton will travel to Geneva High School on Saturday to compete in the Newbill Invitational Tournament. Last year, the Redbirds placed second to Harlem after winning it the year before.

“It’s a nice tournament for us,” Roberson said. “The reason we’re in it is so we can expose our guys to teams that aren’t from this area. We see some teams in our sectional up there. It’s a nice mix of teams. We’re excited and we always look forward to go up there and wrestle in that tournament.”

Alton began its conference season on Dec. 1 with a win over East St. Louis. After losing to Granite City on Dec. 8, the Redbirds bounced back to beat Collinsville the next week.

On Thursday, Alton had five first-period pins to seal the victory from the Maroons.

The match started with Alton senior Keontay Holmes pinning West’s Kyle McCovey in the first period at 182.

“At weigh-ins, we draw a weight class and (182) was where we start,” Roberson said. “That makes it more exciting for parents and fans. In a dual, sometimes you get on a roll and the wrestlers are on deck and in the hole and they see their teammates out there winning and winning and winning and it gets them a little more geared up and a little more fired up for the match. It doesn’t guarantee, but it certainly helps.”

Senior Keondrick Russell got a second-period pin at 195, then Grady Womack and Ryan Kane each had first-period pins at 220 and 285, respectively. After Alton forfeited at 106, it got a first-period pin by Garrett Sims at 113 and a forfeit victory by Gus Kodros at 120 to take a 36-6 lead.

Belleville West rallied to win the next four matches to cut the Redbirds’ lead to 36-24 before Alton came back with three straight wins.

“We kind of got things going with our upper weights and they got some tough lightweights,” Roberson said. “They have (Garrett) Bass in there (at 145) and they were sneaking back in it for a while. We looked strong and we looked good and we wrestled with some energy. We still got some things to work on. There are some areas that we have to get better at.”

Alton’s Scott Storz won by injury default at 152. With 1:03 left in the first period, Belleville West’s Brooke Holdt got injured after Storz scored a takedown.

“I hope she’s all right,” Robertson said. “She may have tweaked a knee or something in there. She’s a tough girl. Any girl who gets out there and wrestle, we don’t look at them as girls. They’re members of the wrestling team and they’re members of the wrestling community. We had a girl all year last year and she stuck it out all year. I’ve got a lot of respect for her.”

Nolan Woszczynski followed with a first-period pin at 160. Christian Everage wrapped up the match with a 16-1 victory over Tristan Caswell.

The Redbirds improved to 7-5 overall and 2-0 at home.

ALTON 53, BELLEVILLE WEST 24

106 -- Noah Trapp (BW) won by forfeit

113 -- Garrett Sims (A) pinned Hunter Laminack (BW),0:28

120 -- Gus Kodros (A) won by forfeit

126 -- Mitchell Millsap (BW) def. Hunter Hobbs (A) 5-0

132 -- Justin Kunderhandt (BW) pinned Lucas Tankersley (A), 0:58

138 -- Logan Johnson (BW) def. Pierre Evans (A) 13-0

145 -- Garrett Bass (BW) def. Courteney Wilson (A) 15-0

152 -- Scott Storz (A) won by injury default

160 -- Nolan Woszczynski (A) pinned Stefan Caswell (BW), 1:03

170 -- Christian Everage (A) def. Tristan Caswell (BW) 16-1

182 -- Keontay Holmes (A) pinned Kyle McCovey (BW) 1:21

195 -- Keondrick Russell (A) pinned Antwon Smith (BW) 2:59

220 -- Grady Womack (A) pinned Marcus Gates (BW) 1:08

285 -- Ryan Kane (A) pinned Dwight Orgeon (BW) 1:25

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

GRANITE CITY — The Granite City Warriors and Alton Redbirds took to the wrestling match missing arguably their biggest fan on Thursday night.

William “Red” Schmitt, the longtime GCHS wrestling coach and 1940 Alton High grad passed away at the age of 94 on Aug. 27, so the two teams dearest to his heart entered the circle with their own heavy hearts with his absence.

The Warriors swept the triangular match with the Redbirds and Civic Memorial Eagles Thursday, defeating AHS 42-22 and CM 69-9, but not before they took a moment to remember Schmitt. The public address announcer read Schmitt's prodigious resume prior to the start of the match. Alton also bested CM 66-9 on the night.

“Coach Schmitt, you can't say enough about the man,” Granite City head coach George Kirgan said. “I'm grateful for what he's done. Then being from Alton and wrestling there and they lost their program and Roby (Eric Roberson) brought their program back, it was just a nice little gesture to appreciate coach Schmitt. He's touched so many lives around the area and coached so many guys who have become coaches themselves. We all learned a lot from coach Schmitt.”

Alton head coach Eric Roberson added, “I love coming to wrestle in Granite, it's a great program with a great tradition and it's great for them to honor Red, especially while they're wrestling Alton. That's a special dual when it comes to Red Schmitt. He didn't miss any Alton and Granite duals. I was glad he was able to see his alma mater last year (33-23 win over Warriors, first since 1938 and only third ever). It didn't quite turn out the way we wanted it this year, but it was awesome (to honor Schmitt).”

Granite City made sure it wasn't going to lose to Alton for a fourth time on Thursday. The Warriors raced out to a 30-6 lead through the first 8 bouts and staved off a late charge by the Birds.

With the score 30-22, GCHS senior Kyle Thompson bumped up to 220 pounds to wrestle Alton's Grady Womack, pinning him at the 3:39 mark of the match. It sealed the deal for Granite City. Heavyweight Korinthan Nabors provided the exclamation point, pinning AHS' Ryan Kane in 2:27 in the final bout.

“It was definitely payback,” Thompson said. “They got us last year, the first time they'd beat us in a long time. We had an off season last year, but we're coming back this year with some young guys on our team and we were able to come out and get a win. It's big momentum for us.”

The victory improved the Warriors to 5-4 overall on the season and 2-1 in the Southwestern Conference. Alton fell to 4-3 and 1-1 in the league with the loss.

Roberson felt the Warriors exposed some inexperience in the lower weights on the Birds and it just put them in too big of a hole to dig out of on Thursday.

“We dug a big hole in the lightweights and our lights are young,” Roberson said. “I've got some freshmen down there that are going to be good, they're scrappers. They just got outmatched by some other kids. The effort was there, they just need to learn more and get some more mat time. We tried to claw back with the upper weights, but it was a little too late.”

The most dramatic bout of the night came at 126 pounds between the Redbirds and Warriors. GCHS' Gregory Marti battled to 3-1 win in overtime against Hunter Hobbs in a tight affair. A takedown in OT secured the win.

“I'm really proud of him because he's taken his lumps this year,” Kirgan said. “But he just keeps coming. This is his first year in the varsity lineup and he showed a lot of heart. He could have given up so many times, but he didn't, he didn't give up.”

Other key wins for the Warriors vs. Alton came from pins from Josh Harsh (120), Brandon Bettag (138) and an 18-3 technical fall from Preston Nicard (132).

AHS got its big wins from Courtney Wilson (145), Nolan Wosczynski (160) and Christian Everage (170) against the Warriors.

Wilson won 2-0 over GCHS' Brendan Davis, while Everage prevailed 15-4 over Jeff Tyler and Wosczynski pinned Cordele Mackin in 1:55.

Wosczynski, a junior, was a bright spot for the Redbirds. He also pinned CM's Michael Spurgeon in 28 seconds and looked dominant in both matches.

“Woz, we're so proud of him,” Roberson said. “He's come so far. He works and does a lot of extra in the offseason. He trains year round and he wants to get better. He's done everything we've asked him to do. Hopefully we're going to see a kind of turn the corner type of year for him... Woz is definitely a bright spot.”

While there wasn't a lot of bright spots for the Eagles' young squad under first-year head coach Chris Jordan, senior Brandon Carpenter sure was one. Carpenter wrestled once Thursday, defeating Thompson 8-5 in a battle between state qualifiers from last season.

“Kyle is a very athletic individual and one of the things we tried to do was go out there and neutralize some of that speed he has,” Jordan said. “Brandon Carpenter really did a great job of hand fighting. He's getting ready for the Pontiac Tournament. That match was awesome. He capitalized on bottom. He works really hard on bottom and that's definitely something we have to take advantage of.”

Thompson gave props to Carpenter in the match and thought he may have taken him a little too lightly.

“I've beaten Brandon Carpenter a lot of times and I just came into this match a little too hot headed,” Thompson said. “He got the best of me this time. He was the better wrestler this time.”

CM, which dropped to 3-2 on the season with the loss, has an influx in numbers this season, but a lack of experience. Jordan thought the 2A Eagles battling a pair of solid 3A squads was a good barometer for where they're at on the year.

“You need teams like this on your schedule to judge where you're at, but also to get ready for the tougher teams we're going to see, especially at the state series,” Jordan said. “The last part of our lineup was all freshmen and we had one sophomore in there and some of the sophomores we picked up today have never wrestled before, so we come in here, see where we're at and where we need to get to. We've got four years with some of