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JM wrestlers open with two wins
By STEVE WILAJ
BROOKFIELD
In Wednesday’s tri-match at Brookfield, the Jackson-Milton wrestling team came out energized for a couple reasons.
First, after an underwhelming preseason match, the Bluejays had something to prove in their season opener. Second — and simply enough — it wasn’t a practice day.
“We’ve taken the last two weeks and beaten the crap out of the kids trying to get them ready for this,” JM coach Dave Tomaino said. “We started out a little soft on them, so we cranked it up about 180 degrees and really put it to them in practice.”
Apparently it paid off, as the Bluejays defeated Jefferson, 49-25, and Brookfield, 60-24.
“It was a team effort,” Tomaino said.
Various JM wrestlers were successful. Mitch Takkanen (113 pounds), Joe Burnside (143), Tyler Jeffries (150) and Anthony Italiano (178) all earned victories.
Still Tomaino emphasizes learning and experimenting above all else in early season matches.
“January is where we tune it up and February is where we peak,” he said. “Right now it’s just trial and error — try new moves and if you get stuck, you get stuck. You try them here instead of waiting until February or March.”
Brookfield coach Brad Harnett spoke along the same lines.
“We were a little bit sloppy. There are a lot of things to work on,” Harnett said. “The great thing is we are young. The first matches there were jitters, the second match we toned it down.”
The Warriors defeated Jefferson, 41-33, for their lone win. Seniors Zach Jamison (169) and Chris Bernadella (142) each earned a couple victories.
“They were aggressive,” Harnett said. “They did fairly well with their neutral position, fairly well with their hips. Most of all they sparked the crowd and the team did fairly well after them. They were the leaders.”
Harnett added he looks forward to seeing how his young guys will develop throughout the season.
“We wrestled an amazing Jackson-Milton team,” he said. “I think we did fairly well, but we could have done better. I look forward to seeing them later on in the year, see how we fare.”
As for Jefferson, coach Tom Avsec said he was happy with how the matches went, all things considered.
“The guys that wrestled did well,” he said. “Some guys are gonna drop their weight so we don’t forfeit so much in the future. I’m happy for the first match and I’m pleased nobody got hurt.”
Joey Baitt (132), Zach Collins (160), Bryce Collins (105) and Daniel Gillespie (194) all recorded victories.