WRESTLING: Warriors fall to Belleville West at home

by

GRANITE CITY – The Granite City Warriors were without two of their top wrestlers, Reide Wilson and Jared Skaggs, due to illness against the Belleville West Maroons on Thursday in a Southwestern Conference match at Memorial Gymnasium.

The Maroons took advantage of those absences and pulled off a 43-35 win over the Warriors. They finished with four pins and three technical falls.

Granite City dropped its second straight dual match and fell to 13-7, the same record from last year. The Warriors also fell to 3-3 in Southwestern Conference play with one match remaining. They'll wrestle against Belleville East next Thursday at home.

Wilson and Skaggs were coming off strong performances at the Geneseo Tournament last weekend. Wilson won a title at 182 and Skaggs placed second at 152.

On Thursday, Wilson and Skaggs were replaced by Andre Weathers and Braden Dippel, respectively. Both Weathers and Dippel lost their matches.

Wilson and Skaggs won't be able to compete in the Southwest Suburban Conference Tournament at Stagg High School this weekend. Granite City will be competing in the Stagg tournament for the first time.

The Warriors finished with five pins and a forfeit victory against the Maroons. They led 36-22 before Belleville West rallied to win the next four matches.

The event started at 182, when Weathers – a sectional qualifier in his sophomore year – was pinned by Raymond DeWalt in the second period.

The Warriors came back with back-to-back pins by Chase Nelson (195) and Michael Whitford (220) before losing back-to-back matches at 285 and 106 and were trailing 17-12.

Sophomore Mike Boyd gave Granite City a spark by pinning Justin Harris at 113. He was leading 2-0 before scoring a pin with 58 seconds left in the second period that gave the Warriors an 18-17 lead and started a run of three straight wins for the Warriors.

Nathan Nelson followed with a pin at 120 and George Wallace got a forfeit victory at 126 to give Granite City a 30-17 lead.

After Josh Harsh lost by technical fall at 132, Preston Nicard pinned Ryan Craun with 1:03 left in the second at 138 to give the Warriors a 36-22 lead.

Belleville West outscored Granite City 21-1 the rest of the match.

Logan Johnson pinned Jeff Tyler with 22 seconds left in the first at 160 to give the Maroons a 39-35 lead. The Warriors got a point deducted from their score after the match.

Then, Stefan Caswell defeated Jay Justice at 170 to clinch the victory for Belleville West.

The Warriors lost their third straight conference match. They started the league season with wins over East St. Louis, O'Fallon and Alton before losing to Edwardsville, Collinsville and Belleville West.

Granite City's match against Belleville East was originally scheduled for Jan. 11, but was pushed to Jan. 25 due to inclement weather.