Junior Chris Healy (Jasper, IN/Jasper) and freshman Keith Garrard (New Castle, IN/New Castle Chrysler) (left) took the top spots in their respective weight classes as the annual Manchester Spartan Mat Classic wrestling tournament on Saturday.
Healy picked up two victories to take the title at 174 pounds. He opened with a bye as the top seed coming into the tournament, then picked up an 8-2 win over Manchester’s Derrick Whitbeck before winning 11-5 against the third seed, Mount Union’s Ken McLeod.
Garrard went 4-0 at 184 pounds to finish in first place. A 9-2 victory in the opening round against Olivet’s Andrew Kozinski put Garrard up against Ohio Northern’s Chris Bailey in the second round. Garrard picked up a 10-1 victory over Bailey, then followed it with a 4-0 sweep against Byron Sanders of Rose-Hulman.to advance to the finals. He scored a 2-1 decision in the championship mat against Olivet’s Ryan Newberry to claim his first championship at Wabash.
Freshman Will Clarke (Indianapolis, IN/North Central) (right) finished third at 197 pounds. Clarke went 4-2 for the tournament. He opened with two consecutive wins, including a pin at the 4:42 mark of his first match. After losing 8-5 to the eventual champion at 197 pounds, Josh Schmidt of Case Western Reserve, Clarke responded with two consecutive wins. He scored a major decision with a 14-4 victory in the semifinals before picking up a sudden victory 5-4 win over Rose-Hulman’s Tom Aigner, the number-two seed in the tournament.
Sophomore Kevin Meyer (Columbus, IN/Columbus North) was fifth at 165 pounds. Junior Drew McCoy (Cumberland, IN/New Palestine) added a sixth-place finish at 149 pounds, as did Jon Albright (Ladoga, IN/Southmont) at 174 pounds.
The Little Giants finished sixth out of 11 teams overall. Wabash scored 74.5 points. Manchester won the tournament with 144 points. Case Western was second (108), with Olivet (95), Mount Union (91), and Ohio Northern (83.5) finishing second through fifth. MacMurray (50), Bethel (49.5), the University of Indianapolis (41), Wheaton (39.5), and Rose-Hulman (28) rounded out the scoring.
Wabash will host the annual Monon Bell Classic on Saturday, January 31.