Hornet wrestlers fall to Onsted in district finals

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 19, 2009

A successful season on the mats came to a quick halt Wednesday night for the Hillsdale Hornets.

After receiving an automatic berth into the finals with a bye the Onsted Wildcats attacked early and won several close matches down the stretch to pull out a 50-22 victory in the team districts, which were held at Onsted.

Head coach Paul Osentoski said both teams were fighting hard all evening, but Onsted "was a tough team and they just flat out beat us".

The Wildcats advanced to the finals with a win over Columbia Central and then took six of the first eight matches from the Hornets to stake themselves to a big lead.

With the loss the Hornets finish the season at 19-5 overall and the distinction of  being SMAA co-champs with Parma Western.

Osentoski said he will remember several things quite vividly from the 2008-09 campaign.

"Probably one of the best feelings was beating Western in the duel meet with them and just being co-champs. We have done some good things this year," he said.

Four Hornets were victorious on the mats Wednesday. Tim Wisneski won via a void at 103 pounds, Jesse Braxmaier defeated Jesse Adrian 13-3 at 119, Kyle Bastien pinned Luke Pawson in 1:50 at 152 and Mike Curby was victorious at 171 by pinning Connar Wiese in 3:40.

Despite bowing out in the district finals as a team, Osentoski said he has high hopes for some of his wrestlers at the individual district championships which Hillsdale is hosting Saturday.

"I think we have a couple of guys who can make a run at states, so we've got to get them ready to give it their best shot and we're looking forward to that," he said.