Savages bring home hardware from SICL tournament

The Sigourney Savages had a sub-par showing against Pekin on January 21 and needed to improve before their next competition, the SICL tournament on January 26 hosted by Tri-County. Not having school, the rest of the week meant no practices either, so things were uncertain going into such an important competition. The Savages came through, with three Champions and multiple placements, finishing fourth in the conference.

One of the three finalists was Mason Dye (113 lbs.) which didn’t come as much surprise, given he’d only lost four matches on the season. Dye didn’t wrestle against Pekin earlier in the week, nursing an injury he’d sustained the weekend prior to the tournament. He got a bye in the first round and burst out of a cannon against Sergey Gorichev (C-M) to pin him off the whistle, only nine seconds in. Dye continued his march to first by beating Michael DeJong (NM) in the final, going up quickly 8-0 before pinning DeJong for the gold.

Trent Hendricks (138 lbs.) also got to the final of his weight class before a high-energy dramatic conclusion. He breezed through the first round by pinning Cody Scholtas (NM) within the first minute and got past Kayne Marshall (Iowa Valley) in round two midway through the second period. Hendricks and Cyden Fitch (C-M) brought the fire and provided everyone in the audience with a show. They had the score tied 2-2 after the first period and Fitch pulled ahead 7-4 at the conclusion of the second to put more pressure on Hendricks. The Junior from Sigourney was up to the task and stormed back to go up one, then down one and trailed by a point with only seconds remaining. Hendricks avoided a near-fall and slipped out to pick up a reversal as time expired to win it 11-10. On one side was exuberance as the Sigourney crowd and coaches’ cheers filled the air, while on the other side was anger from Fitch, believing he’d been robbed of a critical point late. Coaches and wrestlers came together along with the referee and when it all settled down, the decision remained with Hendricks taking the gold.