A habit well worth keeping: Comet wrestlers 3-peat as district champs

[caption id="attachment_188" align="alignright" width="510" caption="Jonesville freshman Nick Barnhill came through with a huge victory at 112-pounds to jumpstart the Comets to their third straight district championship. Photo by Larry Jose, Hillsdale Daily News."][/caption]

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 20

A few outstanding upperclassmen led the way, but it was a short little freshman who got things rolling Thursday as the Jonesville Comets wrestling team brought home its third straight district title and sixth in 10 seasons.

Down 22-11 to Reading in the finals, 112-pound Comets freshman Nick Barnhill stepped in to the ring against Rangers freshman Kyle Smith.

Barnhill lost in the regular season dual against Reading and even trailed Smith 6-4 heading into the third round Thursday, but with Smith just about to make a move with about 1:40 remaining Barnhill seized the moment and took him down with a pin, causing loud roars of approval from his teammates and Comet faithful.

It brought Jonesville within five points and according to head coach Mickey Rowe was the turning point of what eventually became a 53-22 Comets victory.

"We had our heavyweight (against Reading) last time, and we didn't tonight, so that was a 12-point swing. Our chance to win a match was at 112 because the rest of the matches went how I thought they would," he said. "That kid, he started out wrestling great early in the year and then had a little lull in the season and now he's back on and he finished third in the conference meet Saturday, losing to the champion in a good match. It was a huge turning point and got us rolling."

Reading head coach Mark Draper said that the 112-pound bout was indeed a pivotal one, but more than anything it was experience and smarts that carried Jonesville to the win.

"I'd say 80 percent of wrestling is experience because it's hard to teach a kid when to pull, when to hang on, when to let go," he said. "We've got three seniors, one junior, a couple of sophomores and the rest are freshmen."

Rowe agreed to an extent, saying that he likes to focus a lot on teaching his wrestlers how to make well-educated, smart decisions on the mats.

"I've preached to those upper guys for four years that it's all about what I call match management," he said."If it's a 4-2 match going into the third (round), the chance of you pinning him probably isn't real likely, so just wrestle smart and don't go to your back and don't lose control and do dumb things that will cost you points and maybe a match."

The usual suspects all took care of business as expected for Jonesville. Senior Evan Clendening started things off with a win via a fall at 160, but it wasn't until Barnhill's momentum changer that the Comets put more points on the board.

A.J. Stebbins (119), Andrew Barrett (125), Matt Martinez (135), Richie Bayliss (145) and Payden Armstrong (152) all put six points up with pins.

Barrett's was extraordinarily special because it was the 86th pin of his career, a new school record.

Also winning matches for Jonesville were: Nick Ballinger (103) via a void, Tyler Hicks (130), and John Krajenka.

"They've got some kids who battled us pretty good there and we caught a couple of kids and got six points where I wasn't expecting to," Rowe said. "The seniors make the other guys feel like they have to go out and do as good as they did and that really brings us together and when the (youngsters) winning, we get rolling."

Rowe said that winning is nice, but it is just a positive part of the learning experience he is trying to entrench in his athletes.

"It's persistence and stressing to them that this is just one part of their life and sports is actually bigger than just sports. I'm trying to teach them that what you learn here you're going to need when you get in the work force," he said. "You know just because your back hurts today you don't stay home from work, I preach that a lot. I preach about performing your best whether it's at your job at 40 years old or here when you're 15."

Trent Morris, Austin Spieth, Jake Lewis and Paul Reisser were all victorious as the Rangers got off to a quick start, but they wouldn't score again the rest of the evening.

Nonetheless, the Rangers end the season at 20-8 and Draper has high hopes for next year with only three guys graduating.

To get to the finals Reading downed Quincy 40-34 and Jonesville held off a pesky Pittsford team 41-30.

The Wildcats actually won six of the nine matches they had wrestlers for, but five voids killed any hopes of an upset.

The Comets will try to continue their successful run at team regionals next Wednesday when they will have to go up against giants the likes of Addison and Hudson.