After winning 38 straight Kalamazoo Valley Association wrestling matches over the past four and a half years, Constantine was reintroduced to the league loss column Wednesday in a 57-18 home defeat to rival Schoolcraft.
Taylor Reiff works on an eventual pin at 140 pounds.
(Photo by Wes Morgan)
All Falcons coach Steve Wilson could do was tip his cap to a stacked Eagles squad that has all but wrapped up the conference crown with a 7-0 KVA dual record.
“We had a couple matches where I thought we would get a pin here or there,” he said. “One of the matches got away from us that I thought we’d win. But they’re very, very good.
“They’ve had a couple transfers come in that have helped them and have changed the dynamic of the room, and they’re very, very good. We wrestled hard and just got beat by the better team. That’s how it goes.”
Constantine, which won three weight classes, dropped to 6-1 in the KVA and 18-2 overall.
Schoolcraft, ranked No. 6 in Divison 4 by MichiganGrappler.com, claimed the first five bouts, starting at 112 pounds. The Falcons’ Zach Harrison went down at 112 in a major decision, Damon Manning was pinned at 119, Jeremiah Schrock lost by fall at 125, Sawyer Brown was pinned at 130 with 17 seconds left in the third period and Matt Foura’s shoulders touched at 135.
Taylor Reiff stopped the bleeding for Constantine with a pin in 3:32 in his 140-pound bout with Thomas Meadows. Undefeated Andres Montoya, who is currently ranked No. 7 at 140 in Division 4 by MichiganGrappler.com, helped give the Falcons life with a pin (2:30) against Payton Haskins.
Trailing 31-12 with six matches remaining, Constantine lost traction. Nick West lost a 6-0 decision at 152, Andy Waterman suffered a technical fall at 160, Daniel Waterman (171) was edged 4-2 and Randy Waterman was pinned in the first period by Cody Mikel at 189.
Alex Miller got six points for Constantine with a pin at 215 pounds before Andrew Cocanower (285) and Kennedy Espinoza (103) were defeated by pin to end the evening.
Video interview with Alex Miller
“That’s only our second loss of the year, so I think we’ve probably exceeded what most people thought we were going to be able to do. I’m proud of these guys. They wrestle hard and they work hard and it is what it is.
“It’s kind of nice that we were able to win 38 straight in the KVA. It’s got to come to an end sometime. We’ll see how they respond.”