GRANITE CITY • A strong start and a strong finish added up to a convincing victory for the Granite City wrestling team Thursday night.
The host Warriors won the first four and the last six matches on the way to a 53-23 victory against Belleville East.
"We're so solid from 152 (pounds) all the way up, so I felt good about our chances in the second half of the meet," Granite City coach Allen Kirgan said. "I felt we should win 285 and 106, but I wasn't sure about 113 and 120. East has their best wrestlers right after that, so I thought we could find ourselves in a pretty big hole."
East briefly held a three-point lead after winning four matches in a row beginning at 126 pounds, but Lancers coach Maurice Brown wasn't expecting to keep up that pace.
"It's all about mat time and some of our kids that lost early on don't have a lot of it," Brown said. "They have a lot of experience at 106 and 113, and we used two freshmen that may have 40 matches between them."
The meet started at heavyweight, with Granite City's Cole Whitford pinning Jeff Brown in 3:09. Justin Nelson posted a 12-4 win over Lucas Bernal át 106 and freshman Gabe Wood made it three in a row for the Warriors with a pin at 113.
"I've worked a lot on my stance and my shots and they're both getting better," Wood said. "I still need to improve when I'm on bottom.
"It feels good to be a part of this team and I want to finish out the season with a lot of wins. I'd like to win the regional."
At 120, Harrison Barnfield extended Granite City's lead to 20-0 with a 17-7 major decision over Justin Servos.
"Barnfield is a junior and he was wrestled as a freshman, but he had some health problems and didn't come back out until this year," Kirgan said. "He gets better each meet."
East came back with pins by Reggie Edwards at 126 and Deonte McNary at 132, and Skyler Procasky scored a technical fall at 138 to make it 20-17. The Lancers took a 23-20 lead on a pin by Ayiri Ekwejunor at 145.
"We moved up the ladder with our quality kids, so we thought we could get some wins there," Brown said. "I don't think there were any upsets one way or the other. Granite City has a quality program, and they have a lot of depth."
The momentum quickly turned back to Granite City as Chad Whitford (152) and Josh Dowdy (160) won on pins. Justin Valencia's 16-5 win over East freshman standout Matt Striegel put the Warriors ahead 36-23.
Alex Brooks clinched the dual for Granite City by pinning Kyzen Smith in 5:28. The Warriors closed out the match with a technical fall for Sam Tamayo at 195 and a pin for Josh Masters at 220.
"I had confidence in all of those guys," Kirgan said. "We've been in some of the toughest tournaments in the Midwest, and they've placed in the top six in all of them. They're battle-tested."
