Six Cardinal wrestlers to compete in districts Saturday at Rogers City

Coach Mark Grant expects six members of the OHS wrestling team to make the short trip to Rogers City Saturday for the individual district tournament. Grant believes all six have a great opportunity to place in the top four in their respective weight classes and advance to individual regionals the following weekend. The six he expects to compete in districts are Scott Campbell, Eric Behm, Kevin Cole, Zack Galer, Larry Rhein, and David Havel. All are seniors and all competed in Saturday’s Straits Area Conference meet at Rudyard.

Galer, who a few weeks earlier won his weight class at the highly-competitive Northern Michigan Championships in Gaylord, was one of two Cardinals to win a conference championship. The senior pinned Newberry’s Nick Wheeler in 52 seconds and stuck Rand Litzner of St. Ignace in 42 seconds to win the tournament title at 189 pounds. Behm, who returned to the mat for the first time in a few weeks, took up where he left off earlier in the season, recording a pair of pins, against opponents from Rudyard and Newberry, to win the title at 140 pounds. Cole won his first match 16-9, over the Saints’ Aaron Rickley, but fell 9-1 to Rogers City’s Mackenzie Grulke in the 171-pound final to finish second.

Havel, the only Cardinal to wrestle in every meet this season, recording a first-period pin

in his first match, before getting pinned in the championship at 275 pounds. Campbell got a bye in the semifinal, and was ahead in the final at 135 pounds before making a mistake in the second period and getting pinned. He too finished second.

Rhein was pinned in his opening match to an opponent from RC, but rebounded to pin opponents from Newberry and Rudyard to finish third at 215 pounds. On the day, the combined record of the six Cardinals who participated was 8-4, and Grant hopes they can build on that Saturday. Those who don’t place in the top four in their weights at districts are done for the year.

“We’re wrestling well right now,” the coach said. “I expect us to have a pretty good day. I think all six kids have a chance to move on. I think we’ll get some pretty good seeds.”