Tars Wrap Up Season With Strong Regional Final Appearence

A 42-22 loss to Romeo on Wednesday night in the regional final spelled the end of the season for the , but there were few tears shed after the loss.

Instead, fans at school, which played host to the event, stood and cheered for a team that, despite the defeat, continued a proud Anchor Bay wrestling tradition that is second-to-none in the county.

“I’m really proud of what we did,” Anchor Bay senior Blake Baumgart said. “I’m really proud of the whole team. We had a lot of young guys and we made it this far. We wanted to win tonight, we did. But they’re a good team and they beat us. But we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing at all.”

The Tars battled hard against the regular season Macomb Area Conference Red champion Bulldogs, even as much as pulling ahead in the final, 11-9, at one point.

In the end though, the experienced Romeo squad was simply too much.

“They’ve got, I think, seven seniors out there and all but one of them won,” Anchor Bay coach Jim Morisette said. “We're young. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for us, but instead we just reloaded. We still got 29 wins this year, and I’ll take 29 wins against the competition we wrestle any day of the week.”

Anchor Bay’s youth, and the success they found this season in spite of it, or perhaps, as a result of it, is a testament to Morisette and his staff as well as the caliber of athlete that takes the mat for the Tars.

The squad’s regional final appearance came on the heels of a regional opener win earlier Wednesday night over a talented Utica Ford II team, 41-36—a meet that saw four lead changes before the Tars were able to get by the Falcons.

“Let me tell you,” Morisette said. “There were four really good wrestling teams in this gym tonight, four really good ones.”

Eric Rybarz (119 pounds), Zach Morisette (130 pounds), Larry Rybarz (135 pounds), Lucas Shadowski (152 pounds), John Boucier (171 pounds) and Zach VanOverbeke (215 pounds) each won their matches against the Falcons, while Eric Rybarz (125 pounds), Conor Saldana (130 pounds), Larry Rybarz (140 pounds) and Zach VanOverbeke (215 pounds) earned points for Anchor Bay in the final against Romeo.

The fact that the squad made it as far as the regional final is noteworthy given the team was not expected to advance as far in the tournament.

“I think I really saw us come together in team districts,” Baumgart said. “That’s when I started to see that happen.”

Although the team will lose a handful of seniors, the bulk of the team returns to the mat next, better for the experience they gained not only under the glow of the spotlight in the regional final, but also what they went through all year long.

“We knew it was a tall order to beat any of the three teams here tonight,” Morisette said. “And what happened here tonight–we’ll be better for it. I think we learned an awful lot about ourselves this year, an awful lot. We’re going to learn from this year and be better.”