STANDISH-STERLING - Feb. 10, 2007 - Ogemaw Heights was the heavy favorite Saturday to wrap up its fourth consecutive North East Michigan Conference wrestling title, and for the Falcons, at least, all went according to plan.
The rest of the league, however, ended up in quite a jumble, as a few wrestlers turned in unexpectedly strong performances, and Whittemore-Prescott suffered through an 0-for-9 run through the medal rounds that nearly cost them the third-place team spot for the season.
Team-wise, the Falcons won the individual tourney with 182 points, with John Glenn second at 141. Pinconning, which had just one dual meet win during the regular season and was in a last-place tie, took third in the tourney with 106, edging W-P with 103. Oscoda (91) took fifth, followed by Standish-Sterling (61.5) and Tawas Area (22).
The Falcons matched the 1995-98 Ogemaw squads as four-time league champs for the second-most dominating stretch of NEMC wrestling. Pinconning won eight straight league titles from 1980-87.
The Falcons led the way Saturday with six individual champions, two runners-up and two third-place finishes. John Glenn had six reach the championship match, with four winning.
Other individual titles went to Pinconning (two), Standish-Sterling (one) and Oscoda (one).
Ogemaw Heights
The Falcons came into Saturday's tournament as the heavy favorite and did nothing to disappoint. Eight Ogemaw wrestlers reached final matches, with six winning, and went 2-2 in third-place contests.
"Not only did things go as planned, we had some pleasant surprises," said Ogemaw coach Darryl Keeton. "The seniors had high expectations, and they all did their jobs. I'll really miss this bunch when the season's over. They're a tight group, good kids and good sports. When you have guys that are such a class act it makes my job a whole lot easier. I'm very proud of them."
There were only three repeat champions from last season, and all of them were Falcons. Andrew Funsch (125) held off a stiff challenge from Pinny's Adam Pawelski to win 6-0; Carl Worthy (215) pinned W-P's Koeddie Prince and Scott Kimball (189) had a second-period pin of Glenn's Justin LaFlure to become the NEMC's 25th three-time title winner. (John Glenn's Kyle Buda became the 24th such winner earlier in the day).
Kyle Scott (112) edged Whittemore-Prescott's Kyle Hucul in his championship match, earning one back against an opponent he'd lost to earlier in the year. Rob Goulette (140) earned a technical fall victory over Glenn's Don Prather, and Matt Franklin topped Oscoda's Gerald Martinez 13-1.
"Scott had been pinned by Hucul earlier in the year," Keeton said. "He wrestled him tough at Gladwin last week, so we knew he could do it. I thought he made a statement today."
Worthy, a junior has a shot at making the three-time winner list next season. Gladwin's Adam Manninen and Pinny's Kyle Woodruff are the only four-time winners. The sophomore Funsch has a shot at joining that short list.
Kimball and Goulette also are part of the only NEMC father-son champion combinations. Scott's father Jeff won a pair of titles in 1980-81, while Rob joins brother Dominic (2000, 2002) and dad Doug (1977).
Michael Lentz (130) took second to Glenn's Ryan LaFlure, and Bruce Vermillion (135) earned his third straight runner-up medal, this time to Glenn's Buda.
"I was glad to see Lentz come through," Keeton said. "It wasn't unexpected, but with all the success the seniors have had, it was good to see some of the younger guys come through too."
In third-place matches, Zach Jameson (145) and Kyle James (285) were victorious.
"Where we didn't finish first, we lost some tough matches," Keeton said. "Bruce Vermillion again wrestled tough -- he was up against a two-time state qualifier, and to stay off his back against that kid was a job well done.
"I couldn't have asked for more today."
The Falcons' path gets a lot tougher this week as they travel to Petoskey for team district competition, opening against longtime nemesis Gaylord. The winner will face the Petoskey-Cadillac winner for the district title.
John Glenn
The Bobcats finished solidly in second place, advancing six to championship matches and winning four, while going 3-1 in third-place matches.
Individual champions were Herb Bieszke (103), Ryan LaFlure (130), Kyle Buda (135), and Brandon Wrzesinski (171). Don Prather (140) and Justin LaFlure (189) finished second, while Aaron Harvey (112), D.J. LaPan (119) and Chris Pappas (125) took third.
Buda's title was his third.
Pinconning
The Spartans provided the biggest surprise as a team, despite fielding just 10 wrestlers, and made a further case as the team to watch for next season. Pinny took third in the tournament and fourth overall for the season thanks to its performance in the medal round, in which Pinny wrestlers went 6-2.
Cody Woodruff (145) took a surprising 18-10 victory over W-P's Robert Johnstone in the championship match, which came after edging Ogemaw's Zach Jameson, a defending champ from last year, 7-6 in the semifinal match.
Adam Pawelski (119) topped W-P's Chance Rattie for the Spartans' other individual title.
Tyler Wieland earned a finals berth at 125, but ran into Ogemaw's Andrew Funsch in the finals. Wieland held his own but lost 8-0 to the defending NEMC champ and state qualifier.
Seth Haas (130) took third place with a 7-5, three-overtime thriller over W-P's Adam Javor, while Kyle Filcek (160) finished third with an 8-4 win over Glenn's Nick Moore. Charlie Burch earned a first-period pin in his third-place match at 135 and Coty Swinson took third at 189 with an 8-5 decision over SSC's Brad Bialobrzeski.
Whittemore-Prescott
The Cardinals' late-season struggles continued at the NEMC tourney, despite six W-P wrestlers reaching the championship matches and three more wrestling for third place. Though several of those medal-round matches came down to the wire, the Cards were unable to win any of them.
Second-place finishers were Greg Draves (103), Kyle Hucul (112), Chance Rattie (119), Robert Johnstone (145), Hugh Jenkins (152), and Koeddie Prince (215).
Hucul and Rattie each lost one-point decisions in the final match, while Adam Javor (130) lost his third-place match in three overtimes and Scott Garnett (140) and Brandon Kubik (285) each lost third-place matches by two points.
W-P finished fourth in the tournament but held on to its third place spot for the season as a whole.
Oscoda
Another squad with limited numbers but some individual success, the Owls finished off the day on a high as Monte Fouchey took the heavyweight title in the day's next-to-final match.
In fact, probably no one came further in the past two years than Fouchey.
"As a freshman he wasn't even in the lineup," said Oscoda coach Tony Lopez. "Last year he had maybe five wins. But he trained in the spring, and wrestled AAU Freestyle and worked very hard. Today he got to experience some of the dividends of all that wrestling."
Fouchey played a cat-and-mouse game with Standish-Sterling's Mark Stawowy before taking an 8-2 victory for the Owls' only individual title.
Gerald Martinez (160) finished second to Ogemaw Heights Matt Franklin, losing 13-1 in the final but staying off his back against a defending Division 2 state qualifier.
"That was the first second-place finish he's had in any tournament in four years," Lopez said. "Things kind of fell into place for him. He stayed focused and had a goal and wrestled well."
Justin Andrick also finished second, losing to John Glenn's Brandon Wrzesinski in the final.
"Justin just has no fear," Lopez said.
Tim Ruby (152) and Todd Kerentoff (215) each took third.
"Eight of our nine wrestled for places today," Lopez said. "I thought Kerentoff was a nice surprise, but overall I thought we did had a good day."
Standish-Sterling
The Panthers had five reach the medal round highlighted by Dewey Milan's league-title performance that culminated with a 7-1 victory over W-P's Hugh Jenkins.
"It's been a bit of a struggle this year for Dewey," said SSC coach Jim Hergott. "This week he got a couple letters of interest, and I told him he wouldn't be getting those if people didn't believe in him.
"So today I reminded him that this tournament was here in his house, and it was up to him to defend it.
"He wrestled smart and tough, and beat a guy who probably will be a Division 4 state placer. Hugh is an awful good kid; now hopefully Dewey can keep wrestling like that over the next few weeks."
Mark Stawowy (285) reached the final before losing to Oscoda's Monte Fouchey 8-2 in a match that wasn't decided until the final 30 seconds.
Machylle Porter (171) took third with a 2-0 overtime win over Ogemaw's Cory Lambert, while Heather Hergott (103) finished third and Brad Bialobrzeski (189) finished fourth.
Tawas Area
The Braves had two wrestlers finish in the top four. Not so coincidentally, they were the two holdovers from the program two years ago that returned after the Braves didn't field a team last year.
Tom Domerese (140) finished third, and Robert Dosh (145) took fourth.
