Sports
Madison, Marshall Wrestling Finish 12th, 20th At Northern Region Championships
Madison's Albert Schultz and Robert Dooley take second and third, Marshall's Zack Brooks and James Cusak each place fifth at Saturday's Championship
James Madison High School scored 51.50 points to place 12th in Saturday’s Northern Region Wrestling Championships at Fairfax High School.
Though only two Madison wrestlers competed in Saturday’s Championship, the two Warhawk representatives made the most of their appearances. Each wrestler finished in the top three of their respective weight bracket.
Robert Dooley (119 lb.) lost to eventual bracket winner Jake Smith of Robinson, but finished third overall in his weight class bracket. U.S. Naval Academy-bound Albert Schultz (140 lb.) was defeated in a disputed championship match to Westfield’s Beau Donahue. After Shultz scored two points late in the match, the head referee retracted the points, which ultimately contributed to Shultz’s loss. Fans in the Fairfax gym heavily booed the judge’s decision while Madison head coach Shawn Hutchison argued on Shultz’s behalf. The referee remained unwilling to reverse the decision.
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“We had a good showing in the tournament, we had one (wrestler) in the finals and one took third. We have a young team. I only had two seniors come out of the seven that we had at the qualifier, so hopefully every year we’ll just get better and better” Hutchison said on Saturday evening.
Two Marshall Wrestlers Place Fifth
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Marshall High School placed 20th overall, with 26.00 points, at the championship.
Two Marshall wrestlers placed in their events. James Cusak (112 lb.) earned a fifth-place finish in his bracket, and Zack Brooks (215 lb.) pulled the upset to finish fifth as well.
Though the Statesmen didn’t fare as well as they hoped, Marshall head coach Jason Planakis still remained optimistic about his team’s tournament performance.
“We had some setbacks. A couple guys that I thought would do a little better didn’t have the tournament that they had expected. But, at the same time, Zac Brooks had a phenomenal tournament. He beat two guys that he had lost to a week ago, in order to finish here at fifth-place. At the beginning of the season, it wasn’t even clear that he was going to be our starter. To go from that to being fifth is pretty good,” Planakis said.
