Fordson Wrestles to Victory in District Meet

Four teams competed in the varsity wrestling district tournament at Garden City High School on Jan. 10. prevailed among , and Garden City for the second year in a row.

In the semi-finals, the Fordson Tractors went up against the Dearborn Pioneers while the Garden City Cougars faced the Edsel Ford Thunderbirds. Throughout the matches, Edsel Ford head coach Mike Zimnicki paced back and forth with animation to help support his players.

Zimnicki said his clapping helps the players know they have his support and hopes it will keep them in the game. The Thunderbirds eventually fell short in a close contest against the Cougars and finished off their season 6-12.

Zimnicki said that injuries may have been a deciding factor to his team’s early elimination.

The Dearborn Pioneers suffered a 63-18 deficit against the Tractors. In the fourth match-up between the cross-town rivals, Tractors’ sole freshman Hassan Ajami won by a pin after the second round. Ajami (125 pounds) said he was just happy because his dad was in the stands.

“I was a little nervous but once the match started ... it’s normal,” said Ajami, who went 8-3 this season. “It just feels good.”

Dearborn High head coach Randy Sulaver said some of his players were nursing injuries as well.

“What happened was we got spanked,” Sulaver said. “Unfortunately we’ve been plagued with some injuries, so we weren’t at full strength. But that’s the name of the game; that’s the nature of the beast.”

The Cougars and Tractors were left standing in the finals.

The beginning weight was at 285 pounds, and Fordson took the lead by a pin.In the second match-up, it took three rounds until the Cougars lit the lamp with a major decision. The Tractors quickly answered back in the third match-up with yet another pin and took the lead, 18-4.

The fourth match-up was the longest. Ajami battled against a pin by his opponent, Cougars junior Nick Doane. Doane eventually won after three rounds and a major decision, but said defending moves were his team’s weak point.

“I feel like I did OK today but I could’ve done a lot better,” Doane said. “We just wanted to come out here and give everything that we have.”

After the Cougars won the fifth round match-up, the Tractors went on to win six consecutive matches, five of which were by pins. Out of a total of 11 matches, the final score remained 58-20.

The Tractors will advance to the regional tournaments in Canton on Feb. 16.

Cougars head coach Donald Giese was happy with his players’ performances, considering their lack of experience.

“We’re just a really young team,” Giese said. “We have one senior on our team, everybody else are sophomores so we’re just learning.”

The Tractors celebrated their second district championship title with a trophy, a team picture and lots of smiles. Assistant coach Aboudi Beydoun has already begun to strategize for the regional championship.

“We just gotta come out and wrestle hard,” Beydoun said. “Everybody worked hard and did their part. We have to try to do the same thing to get ready for next week."

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