Wrestling: Dow splits home meet

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With a lot of freshmen on this year’s team, Midland Dow wrestling coach Steve Goss knew his guys were going to face a steep learning curve.

Wednesday, his grapplers seemed up to the challenge.

The Chargers picked up an early 57-23 win in a match against Heritage before falling 42-30 to Bay City Central at H.H. Dow High School. The split puts Dow at 5-4 on the season.

“I saw a lot of improvement in our guys,” Goss said. “We made a big improvement over last year and the year before against Heritage and Bay City Central. They (BCC) dominated us last year, and Heritage beat us last year, also.”

The Chargers gained a sizable lead in their first match, powered by juniors Mike Crandell (145) and Jacob Haney (130), who both finished 2-0 on the night. Freshman Aaron Matthews (103) also was victorious and finished 2-0 on the night to move his season record to 8-1.

“I’m happy,” Goss said. “We’ve got some sensational freshmen that are really helping us out. Pretty much everybody is contributing, and we’ve got some juniors and seniors that are leading the way.”

Dow’s inexperience did begin to show early in its match against Central, as the Chargers quickly fell behind. They engineered a late rally, but ultimately fell short.

“Overall it went very well,” Goss said. “I saw pretty much everybody giving a hundred percent, and I’m really happy about that.”

Spence Hill (119), Travis Waterman (125), Tyler Huntress (130), and Nathan Arnosky (140) joined Crandell, Haney, and Matthews at 2-0 on the night.

The Chargers will return to action Saturday when they travel to the Ogemaw Heights Invitational. The meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

For 243 additional photos from Wednesday’s meet click on “Photo Slideshow” in the top right corner of this article.

Photos by Jason Wolverton & Cory Butzin