News Photo by Cassandra VanHorn Alpena High School wrestler Haley Stenz dominates her opponent in a match on Wednesday. The Wildcats defeated Alcona but fell short to Oscoda in their first match of the season. Alpena competes at Birch Run on Saturday.

ALCONA — In Alpena’s wrestling duals on Wednesday evening, the Wildcats defeated Alcona in their duals while giving a win to Oscoda, resulting in a win and loss at their first event of the season.

With a young team, Alpena defeated Alcona 66-18 team points and fell short to Oscoda 47-32.

“Every day, win or lose, we come back and improve and get better the next time,” coach Matt Kowalski said.

To start off the Alcona duals, Matthew Spencer opened with a win by a pin, followed by a loss from Brody Oliver. Westin Mitchell, third to go, got yet another win from a pin.

Lyrik Ricketts and Haley Stenz both won by a pin as well.

There also were multiple voids, default wins given from no opposing players in their weight class.

Overall, Alpena dominated Alcona with a gap of 48 points between the two teams.

To start off the Oscoda duals, Cayden Smith was defeated by a pin. Followed by another loss featuring Alex Dikeman.

To stop the losing streak, Oliver came back with a win by pin for Alpena.

Ricketts, almost winning by a major — a win by eight points — accomplished a win for his match.

Stenz, debuting her high school career, got her first tech of the season — winning by 15 points and getting an automatic win.

Alpena lost with 32 team points, just behind their opponents of 47.

Planning for upcoming practices, Kowalski said, “There’s a lot of tiny little things that we can work on and get better.

“We wrestled really well,” he continued. “We came out and the matches that we did lose were just tiny little errors that we can fix. A lot of guys came out and did very well for their first matches. Several people got their first wins.”

The next event of the season is Saturday at Birch Run High School at 9 a.m.