UT wrestling slips against Rocky

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By Shannon Heaton | Friday, January 25, 2008 |

United Township’s Anthony Angel lifts the leg of Rocky’s Nick Havemann during their 160-pound match Thursday. Angel won 4-1. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

United Township had all the pieces in place to defeat Rock Island and control its fate in the Western Big 6 Conference race Thursday night at the Rock Garden.

Big points from 103-pound junior Billy Christiansen. Panther middle weights staying off their backs and away from big points against the powerhouses in the middle of the Rocks’ lineup. Stars in the upper weights waiting in the wings to take the dual home in favor of United Township.

Rocky freshman Nick Havemann had other plans. Rather than mix it up offensively with UT junior Anthony Angel, who had significant experience and a length advantage, Havemann’s counter-wrestling style prevented the Panthers from running the table late, helping preserve a 31-29 Rock Island victory.

“I was just doing what my coaches told me to do. I wasn’t running a lot of offense. I didn’t want to get caught (in a pin),” Havemann said. “I knew if I didn’t get pinned, we would have a shot at conference. Now we’ve got a shot at a three-way tie for conference champions.”

With the Rocky victory and Moline’s 44-30 victory at Alleman, all three teams — Rock Island, United Township and Moline — stand at 2-1 in the Big Six race.

Should each of the three take care of business in Quincy against the host Blue Devils and Galesburg (Rock Island tonight at 6 p.m., Moline and UT Saturday at 11 a.m.), the trio will tie for the conference title for the second consecutive year.

“Losses like that are just as good as a win,” said Rock Island coach Larry Kanke, referring to Havemann and 103-pound Kyle Carstens ability to avoid getting pinned by Christiansen.

“We’ve got weights we’re favored in and they’ve got weights they’re favored in. When we’re not favored, we can’t give them six.”

Rock Island built a 28-8 lead with wins in seven of the first nine weights. With Havemann’s three-point loss, and a likely win at 285 pounds in hand, that put pressure on UT to make a move. And the Panthers did move, bumping up stars Christopher Owens and Robert Cooney up a weight to 215 and 285 pounds, respectively.

The moves gave the Rocks an opportunity to clinch at 189, and Seth McCubbin sealed the deal with an 11-6 win against Jacob Roberson, who was wrestling his first varsity match of the 2007-08 season.

“At that point, we were in a situation where we didn’t get the matchups that we wanted. We wanted to get (171-pound Nick) Meyers (who received a forfeit) into the mix there,” UT coach Chad Davis said. “We had to roll the dice and it didn’t come out our way.

“There’s still something out there to get. We’ll spend some time talking about it, wake up tomorrow and focus on Quincy and Galesburg.”

n Moline 44, Alleman 30: The Pioneers (0-3 in WB6 duals) built an 18-5 lead behind pins from Austin Murray (189), Gary Smith (215) and Alex Wilson (285), but Moline’s strength in the middle weights (pins at 135, 140, 152 and 160 from Goran Stojanovic, Jim Jernigan, Joel Griffin and Eric Carlson, respectively) wound up carrying the day.