Division 2

CLIO - Feb. 24, 2007 - Ogemaw Heights' contingent of regional qualifying wrestlers had an outstanding day at Saturday's Division 2 regional at Clio, running up a collective 15-5 record against some of the state's competition, with five of the six Falcons earning spots at the individual state finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills, March 8-10.

Andrew Funsch (125 pounds), Rob Goulette (140) and Matt Franklin (160) all earned regional titles and top-four seeding at the state finals by winning all three of their matches. Scott Kimball (189) finished third and Zach Jameson (145) took fourth, while Drake Killinger (145) won a match before bowing out.

Funsch, who had not been at 100 percent during the district tournament and had to survive coming in as a fourth seed, earned his trip to the finals the hard way, edging Joe Turner of Linden (who came back through the consolation bracket to finish third) 4-2, Paul Saunders of Avondale (who finished fourth) 5-0 and pinning Kegan Arthur of Petoskey in 4:45 -- in other words, winning the regional title while defeating all three of the other state qualifiers from his weight.

Goulette had pins in two of his three matches, including at 3:02 in the championship match against Avondale's K.C. Hills.

Jameson split his first two matches, then beat Dan Sweetman of Gaylord in a winner-to-state, loser-out match, 2-1. MIke Myer of Oxford edged Jameson 1-0 in the third place match.

Killinger, a surprise regional qualifier after wrestling most of the season at the JV level, lost to the second and third-place finishers but defeated Matt Lamer of North Farmington 4-1 in the consolation round.

Franklin went the distance in all three of his matches, finishing with a 4-1 decision in the championship bout over Mt. Morris's Adam Tabit.

Kimball had an opening-round pin, then lost to eventual runner-up Brice Carter of Swartz Creek 4-2 in his semifinal match, then came through the consolation round to earn a state finals spot with a pin and a 6-2 decision over Oxford's Zach Line.

All but one of the Falcons' state finals qualifiers are veterans of the Palace experience. Kimball is a three-time state qualifier and two-time medallist (including third place last year), while Frankilin finished seventh last season at 152. Goulette was a qualifier at the end of the 2004-5 season, while Jameson will be making his first appearance.

Also at the Division 2 regional, John Glenn's Brandon Wrzeskinski (171) took third place at 171 to qualify for the Palace, but defending qualifier Kyle Buda lost a pair of close decisions to see his season end.

Division 3

REMUS - CHIPPEWA HILLS - Feb. 24, 2007 - Pinconning, Standish-Sterling and Oscoda each qualified a wrestler for the individual finals on Saturday.

The Spartans, which led the local Division 3 schools with six regional qualifiers, nearly had a couple more after some close defeats in the elimination rounds.

Corey Woodruff (145) earned his finals berth with a second-place finish, earning two wins before dropping a 17-4 major decision in the championship match.

Adam Pawelski (119), Charlie Burtch (125) and Tyler Wieland (125) each won matches before getting knocked out, with all three losing decisions to wrestlers from the host Chippewa Hills squad in the elimination round.

Seth Haas (130) lost two decisions and Coty Swinson (189) lost both his matches as well.

Standish-Sterling returns Dewey Milan (152) to the finals after he took fourth place.

"Some considered this to be the toughest weight class at this regional," said SSC coach Jim Hergott. "You may see four (state) placers here; the top two were placers last year.

"Dewey did catch a break when Johnson from Tri-County didn't make weight; he pinned Dewey at the state finals last year."

After an opening-round win, Trevor Tyler of Roscommon took a 7-0 win over Milan and sent him to the consolation round, where he earned his state finals spot with a 9-3 win over Bernnie VandePol of Morley Stanwood.

Not so fortunate was Mark Stawowy (215), who led by two with 20 seconds to go in his opener against Juan Enriquez of Grant, only to lost 6-5 in the final seconds. In the next round, Stawowy earned an 11-0 victory over an opponent he had a tough time beating at the district tournament, but injured his ankle in the process, which hampered him in a 14-6 loss to Chip Hills' Colt Miller in the elimination round.

Machylle Porter (160) opened with a pin of an eventual state qualifier, but got pinned in the next round and lost an 8-4 decision in the elimination round to see his season end.

"All these kids had great years," Hergott said. "The best thing is, they all come back next year."

For Oscoda, Monte Fouchey's (275) storybook season continued after he finished fourth, including a 55-second pin of Kalkaska's Matt Pare and a 4-2 win over Frank Taylor of Morley Stanwood in the elimination rounds. Fouchey seemingly came out of nowhere this season to win NEMC and district titles, and now will wrestle at the Palace next weekend.

Tim Ruby (145), Gerald Martinez (10) and Justin Andrick (171) also competed, with Andrick suffering the toughest exit with a pair of one-point losses, including a 9-8 loss in the opening round to eventual regional champion Ryan Dagen of Reed City.

Tawas Area's Tom Domerese also competed at 140 but was unable to advance.

Division 4

MANTON - Feb. 24, 2007 - After a rough last few weeks to end the season, Whittemore-Prescott turned in a trio of solid performances out of its three regional qualifiers at the Division 4 regional in Manton on Saturday, with two of the three earning state finals berths.

Robert Johnstone (145) and Hugh Jenkins (171) each earned third place finishes, while Brandon Kubik, in just his second month of high school wrestling, had a win before being eliminated in an overtime match.

"It was a very solid day," said Ogemaw coach Brian Cunningham. "All three guys wrestled very well.

"It was a very tough regional. Half of the returning state qualifiers didn't make it back this year. To me it was clearly the number one region; you had extremely strong teams from Pine River and Rogers City that qualified for the state tournament, as well as Kingsley. Just five rock-solid teams and some great individuals."

Jenkins opened with a major decision loss to Alex English of Fulton, but came back with a win by default, a major-decision win over Kingsley's Rob Kautman to reach the third place match, then a 4-3 victory over English in their second meeting of the day.

"Hugh came out a little flat," Cunningham said. "But after that he really turned it on and dominated. He was really geared up for the third place match, and I think he surprised that kid after losing to him the first time."

Johnstone lost his semifinal match 4-0, but beat MIo's NIck Nankervis, a state qualifier last year, to earn his own state finals berth, then edged St. Louis's Cody Eyer 6-2 for third.

"The match (against Nankervis) was a tough one," Cunningham said. "He beat him 10-9 at district, but really took care of things this time."

Kubik, as a fourth seed, drew a tough opening-round opponent in Carson-City Crystal's Scott Charter and was quickly pinned, but got a win by default before losing a 3-1 overtime decision to Jon Nuckels of Kingsley.

"We thought heavyweight was his best chance to get through (rather than the 215 weight class, which he wrestled most of the season)," Cunningham said. "The top three spots were pretty much taken, but we figured the fourth spot he'd have a chance at.

"The first kid had about an 80 pound advantage of him. But against the Kingsley kid, he wrestled really well.

"Considering he's only been with us a couple of months, Kubik should be really tough next year.

"It was a good day of wrestling for us after the past few weeks. I didn't know a lot about what we had this year coming in, and I think we've had a chance to sort some things out. Next year I think we'll be better."