Escanaba Eskymo Wrestlers Roll Past Marquette

ESCANABA----The Escanaba High School wrestling team gave up three pins in the first three matches of their dual meet with the Marquette Redmen Thursday night.

But the Eskymos lost only one more match the rest of the night and easily won the duel meet from the visting Redmen, 53-21, at the Escanaba High School Gym.

By luck of the draw, the match started at 171 pounds, which helped the Redmen as their strength was in the upper weight classes.

Curt Calovecchi won at 171 pounds for Marquette, beating Escanaba sophomore Brendon Schuenke on a pin at the 1:22 mark.

Marquette's Per Rahm defeated Eskymo Ryan Timler in 51 seconds at 189 pounds, and then Joe Iwanicki defeated Eskymo freshman Mo Hoque at 215 pounds on a pin with one second left in the first period. That left Marquette with an 18-0 lead on the team score.

Eskymo heavyweight Bill Soper put his team on the board with a 6-3 win over Rangier Rossway, then Escanaba got forfeit wins at 103, 119, and 130 pounds.

Those 18 free points helped the Eskymos to take the lead in the team score. And Trevor Iriving pinned Marquette's Tyler Teneyck at the 1:43 mark to help the Eskymo cause.

The match of the night came at 125 pounds, as Escanaba's Zach Priebe battled Marquette's Hunter Moore. It was back-and-forth throughout the entire six minutes.

Moore led, 9-8, entering the third period before Priebe got a huge three-point move early in the final period.

He followed that up with two more points moments later to lead, 13-9, and then Priebe held on in the final seconds to post a hard-earned 13-12 victory.

Escanaba freshman Hunter Sadler, competing with a bumb knee that will need surgery later this month, gutted out a pin over Marquette's Ken Hubbard in 3:26.

That gave the Eskymos a 36-18 lead on the team scoreboard, and the dual meet was no longer in doubt. Escanaba sophomore Kaleb Rahoi added to the lead with a dominating 16-0 "tech fall" win over Bryan Helmer, making the team score 41-18.

Eskymo freshman Teddy Peippo pinned Redman sophomore Ethan Locke with 22 seconds left in the match to secure six more points and give Escanaba a 47-18 lead.

Marquette's Austin Johnson defeated Alec Slaga on points at 152, but Eskymo captain Travis Heller overwhelmed Jackson Mahler for a pin at 160, making the final score 53-21. Heller's pin came at the 35 second mark of the second period.

In the junior varsity matches, Escanaba won three of the five competitions.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see videos and photos from Thursday night's match. Pictured at top: Travis Heller has Marquette's Jackson Mahler down during their match Thursday night.

The Escanaba Wrestling Club and Eskymo Fan Club paid $9,500 for this new wrestling mat.

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

12/6	7:00 PM	at Coleman, Wis.	15 - 59 (L)

12/13	6:30 PM	at Gladstone Braves	21 - 43 (L)

1/10	6:45 PM	Marquette Redmen	53 - 21 (W)

1/31	7:00 PM	Gladstone Braves	19 - 41 (L)

2/2	10:00 AM	Gladstone Braves	223 - 203 (W)