Area grapplers qualify for state wrestling meet

Lapeer West’s Adam Nichols won the 130 lb. title at Mt. Pleasant last Saturday. Photo by Chris Dungey MT. PLEASANT — The Lapeer West wrestling season will continue to roll on, after a very successful showing at the No. 5-2 individual regionals at Mt. Pleasant High School last weekend. At 130, Adam Nichols won first place in his weight class with a win by decision, 3-2. Dean Somers and Dakota Carie each placed second in the 112 and 119 weight classes, respectively. CJ Melton locked down third place at 171 with a win by fall at 1:32. Alex McEvoy went 1-2 on the day, and Cameron Drugich was 0-2, ending both of their seasons.

“I think that all of our kids wrestled well and competed in their matches against St. John’s,” commented coach Matt Nowak. “It was big for CJ to win his third place match so he doesn’t have to wrestle a number one qualifier. Adam Nichols won the regional title. He wrestled well all day. Dean Somers closed the gap against Zac Hall from St. John’s. The last two times he wrestled him, he got beat by 15 and eight, so only losing by four gives him a lot of confidence going into the state tournament.”

Imlay City’s Nino Mosher (bottom) on the mat back in December. Photo by Chris Dungey With time winding down on the 2011-12 wrestling season, Nowak looks forward to competing at the state level. “Dakota has another tough match against Logan Massa. We have two weeks to get ready for the state tournament.”

Lapeer East took two grapplers to the regional and Joe Perry at 215 was second and Dillon Ellsworth at 140 was fourth. Both move on to the state meet.

“The boys wrestled well overall, but we still need to come out with a little more urgency to begin matches,” said East coach Erik Hohenthaner. “Neither will have an easy road ahead, but they both have the ability to place at states.” — B.P./L.P.

No. 11-3 Durand

With six wrestlers taking the mat last Saturday at individual regionals, Imlay City will be sending three to the state meet March 1-3 at the Palace of Auburn Hills. This includes Sam Lyscas at 145 lbs., who beat Alma’s Boyd Hubbard by major decision 12-3 before falling to Hemlock’s Justin Tomasek 6-0, only to bounce back with wins over Birch Run’s Mitch Franklin 11-5 and Millington’s Joey Roehl by default to finish third and qualify for the next round. The top four placers in each weight class qualify for the state meet.

Ray Murawski will also be moving on for the Spartans at 130 after grabbing the fourth slot with major decison victories over Ovid-Elsie’s Tyler Pease, 10- 1, and Portland’s Alex Young, 13- 2, in addition to losing to Vassar’s Nick Baker, 3-2, and Midland- Bullock’s Chris Marsh by pin in 2:39. Imlay City’s other fourth place finisher was Nino Mosher at 189 after rebounding from an opening-round defeat to Ithaca’s Travis Wetzel by fall in 5:10 to get the better of Birch Run’s Mack Staley by pin in 2:49 and Montrose’s Collin Karcher 10-8 before finally ending up on the wrong end of an 8-4 decision against Wetzel in the rematch.

As for the Spartans who made it to regionals but won’t be competing at the next level, Garrett Toombs and Kyle Guerrero both went 0-2 at 103 and 135, respectively, and Jake Newton sandwiched an 8-2 win at 152 over Hemlock’s Kenny Mitchell between losses by major decision to Chesaning’s Jerry Mahar 10-2 and Midland-Bullock’s Brandon McCann 14-2.

Capac was also in action on the day and will send all three of its wrestlers who qualified for regionals on to the state meet, a feat Mykle Dedenbach helped bring to life at 125 by taking out Portland’s Nathan Balderson by technical fall 17-0, Freeland’s Glenn Fitkin by major decision 14-8 and Lake Fenton’s James Demember 6-0 to come in first. Dan Cornish brought home a title for the Chiefs at 171, as well, after taking out Ithaca’s Noah Harless and Essexville-Garber’s Mason Geno by pin in :25 and 1:09 prior to edging out Portland’s Seth Manshum 7-5.

Dustin Hunsucker was Capac’s only other hope at 103, but he came through like a charm by putting down Montrose’s Arthor Payne in 1:31, Freeland’s Graham Fitkin 9-5 and Alma’s Damian Castillo in 3:35. Hunsucker also lost to Birch Run’s Jerry Fenner in round two by major decision 14-2.

Almont took two wrestlers to the regional tournament and saw both qualify for states. Tom Ray at 285 won the regional with a 45- second pin in the finals over Jarred Pitts of Freeland. He also defeated Lainsburg’s Dan Kiesling, 15-0, and Birch Run’s Kyle Spencer in 3:25. At 119, Grant Turnmire finished fourth by defeating Josh Hobson of Birch Run, 4-0, and Marshall Conley of Caro, 7-4, and losing to Chance Lisik of Hemlock in 3:23 and Travis Phillips of Millington, 4-2.

LakeVille saw Anthony Griffin fail to qualify for the state finals at 135. Griffin lost to Alma’s Bruce Hubbard in 1:59 and Birch Run’s Damian Johnson in 2:05. Griffin defeated Durand’s Michael Fremd in 3:15. — M.S./E.H.

No. 14-4, New Lothrop

The Mayville wrestling team traveled to New Lothrop on Saturday for the individual regionals. Several Wildcats competed, but only one lasted long enough to qualify for the individual state meet at the Palace of Auburn Hills in a couple of weeks.

Wrestling at 135, Aaron Moody opened up with a win by fall at 2:48, followed by a 9-7 win to send him to the championship match of the weight class. Moody would fall by decision, 16- 2, but his second place finish was good enough to qualify him for states.

“He wrestled very well, as did all the other Mayville wrestlers, however, he was the only to qualify for the state finals,” said coach Mark Cooper. — B.P.