Saints take away SAC crown from Hurons
The Hurons? stranglehold on the Straits Area Conference championship in wrestling came to an end at Rudyard Saturday. Rogers City had won six conference titles in a row, but was without wrestlers in three weight classes. The Hurons just couldn?t stay with St. Ignace, who took the title with 170 points. The Hurons were conference runner-ups with 157.50.
When the tournament ended, clerical errors were corrected by officials, leaving Rogers City only a point-and-a-half behind the Saints, but Huron coach Pat Lamb said the points were added again, finding further mistakes, but widening the gap. Onaway, with six wrestlers, took third with 94 points, while Newberry was fourth, followed by Rudyard.
?THE THREE I?s got us: injuries, illness and ineligibility,? said Lamb. ?Having somebody at 135 (pounds) and 140 would have been a major lift for us. It?s going to hurt us the rest of the year. ? The Hurons have been without a wrestler at 145 pounds most of the year. St. Ignace was the only school that brought someone to compete at 145, so they picked up some easy points.
?It?s a crushing defeat for us,? said Lamb. ?I have to give credit where credit is due. St. Ignace came to wrestle, and they put out a fine effort. My hats off to them. They deserved to win.? ?The kids stepped it up,? said Harvey Bentley, second year coach from St. Ignace. ?Head-to-head, we?ve kept it close throughout the year.?
THE HURONS crowned five individual SAC conference champions and had nine wrestlers in the finals. This week started the elimination portion of the Michigan High School Athletic Association post-season wrestling tournament. Team districts, which Rogers City has won 16 years in a row, were Wednesday (past press time) against Charlevoix in the RCHS gym at 7 p.m.
The winner will move on to team regionals at Munising February 19. The school with the lower point total will have had its season come to an end. Individual districts are Saturday in the RCHS gym. Participating schools include Charlevoix, Fife Lake-Forest Area, Frankfort, Hale, Kingsley Area, Leroy-Pine River Area, Mancelona, Manton, Mio, Onaway, Sanford Meridian, and Whittemore-Prescott. Wrestling starts at 10 a.m. with the top four wrestlers in each weight class moving on to individual regionals at Ithaca. The top four wrestlers in each class at regionals advance to the state finals at The Palace.
FOUR OF THE five individual conference champs for Rogers City won their finals match with a pin. Freshmen Austin Fairbanks (112 pounds) and Cody Wenzel (130 pounds) both wrestled only one match in their weight classes. Fairbanks had a pin in the first period while Wenzel?s came at 4:47.
Junior Justin Kelley (125 pounds) won his match midway through the third period, while sophomore Joshua Christ (275 pounds) used only 50 seconds of energy to win his second individual SAC title. The lone senior, Mackenzie Grulke (171 pounds), took a decisive 10-1 decision and finished the day 2-0. His knee is improving, and hi
?IT WAS A terrible call on Dylan. That is the worst I?ve ever seen,? Lamb said. ?He rolled through, he was in total control of the match. He was ahead by 13 points.? Krueger lost his only match, while Mark Grulke and Gorlewski were 1-1. Taking third place were Joe Lince and Chris Rhode.
Rhode lost his first match, but took third with a 3-2 decision over Nick Wheeler of Newberry. The Huron wrestlers traveled to Rudyard two days before conference and defeated the home squad 54-5 and Newberry 47-21. Double winners were Krueger, Fairbanks, Centala, Kelley, Wenzel, Mackenzie Grulke, Rhode, Gorlewski, and Christ. The Hurons? dual record is 20-8.
