By Wendi Reardon Price

Special to The Oxford Leader

Oxford Varsity Wrestling finished OAA Red League action going 1-1, Jan. 18, at Clarkston High School, finishing in second place in the league overall.

The Wildcats only loss in the league was to Clarkston, 42-20, in the final dual of the night. Clarkston won the first four matches, grabbing a 16-0 lead.

Lukas Smith had the first win for the Wildcats with a 11-2 major decision over Marco Marino in the 138-pound weight class.

Luke Johnson (150) had a 9-4 win over Clarkston’s Cayden Strong.

“We put some matchups out there at 126 and 150 that our kids wanted to get back,” said Brian Gibbs, head coach for Clarkston. “Cayden fell a little short. It has been stinging him throughout the season, a little bit losing to Luke. Hats off to Luke. He is a phenomenal athlete, a phenomenal wrestler.”

Micah Roper (165) had a fall over Clarkston’s Trey Setter 45 seconds into the match.

Ian Jones (175) had a take down with seconds left in his match over Ethan Zak to finish with a 9-7 win.

The last win of the night was from Gavin Lewis (106) over Tyler Le with a major decision, 8-0.

Oxford opened the night with a 54-15 win over Bloomfield Hills. Lewis won the first match with a void.

The Wildcats took the next six matches as Dominic Benjamin (113) had a 10-0 win over Chase Hawkins; Chase Beall (120) a 8-6 win over Chase Roumayah; Koen Eberhard (126) with a fall over Jaxon Foote; Niko Hatzigeorgiou (132) with a 6-2 win over Anthony Najjar; Smith had a fall over Jonathen Abrams; Ryan Thompson (144) with a 12-0 win over Ben Guettler; Johnson with a fall over Seven Hannah; Roper with a 15-3 win over Emir Sarkic; and Devon Strimpel (190) with a fall over Fallou Cisse.

Oxford went 2-3 at the Holt Varsity Duals on Saturday.

They had a 39-36 win over Gull Lake. Lewis had a void and Benjamin had a 6-4 decision over Korbin Diehl to get the last two wins for Oxford to seal the win.

They also had a 69-12 win over Battle Creek Central, 69-12. They lost to Grand Haven, 37-31; Romeo, 50-18; and Holt, 58-15.

Oxford heads to the Bob Lloyd Memorial Invite this Saturday and begins the post-season the week of Feb. 9.

All photos by Wendi Reardon-Price