AUBURN HILLS - Mar. 8-10, 2007 - It wasn't necessarily the best year for local wrestlers overall at the individual state finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills Mar. 8-10, but a number of area athletes brought home all-state honors and Roscommon's Joey Schneider earned his school its first individual state championship.

Ogemaw Heights, which sent five wrestlers to the Division 2 finals, came home with just one state medal as it just wasn't the Falcons' weekend.

To start with, several of the Falcons wrestled with a severe case of the flu. It turned out to be a very fortunate thing for the Ogemaw wrestlers that the Ogemaw Bulldogs Youth Wrestling Club, which most of the Falcons cut their wrestling teeth in while younger, had donated money for the Falcons to rent a suite a the Palace so they had a place to go while not wrestling.

The flu hit 125-pounder Andrew Funsch the hardest as he was barely able to stay on his feet for the last half of his first round match, which ended in a heartbreaking 7-5 loss to Adam Dueweke of Marysville. Funsch came back to earn a consolation-round victory on Friday morning, a 5-3 win over Kody Donnelly of Greenville, but was too sick to continue and had to withdraw from the tournament.

"That was a really bad break for Andrew," said Ogemaw coach Darryl Keeton. "He was clearly not himself and he still has a couple of years left. He didn't want to come out despite how sick he was. That's just the kind of heart he has.

Scott Kimball (189) claimed a fifth-place medal after contracting Funsch's flu midway through the three-day tourney. Kimball hung on for a 2-1 victory over Three Rivers' Zack Jones in the opener but lost to Monroe Jefferson's Shane Kupchick in a quarterfinal match. Kimball earned a pair of wins by decision to clinch a medal, but then the flu and St. Johns' Tyler Dickinson knocked him to the fifth-place match with a 15-0 technical fall. Kimball came back to win his rematch with Jones 3-1. The 189 pound weight class was stacked with more returning medallists from last year than there were spots to claim this year. Of his six matches, five were against other eventual place-winners.

"He wasn't feeling so good that last day, and it was evident in how he wrestled that one match (the tech fall loss)," Keeton said. "He rallied that last match; getting sick was just bad news. But that weight bracket was just brutal and he did a great job to get a medal."

Rob Goulette (140) came with legitimate state medal hopes, but lost a pair of heartbreakers, 9-8 to Rafael Rodriguez of Adrian and 5-4 to Haslett's Nathan Beyer.

"Rob wasn't able to wrestle his style match," Keeton said. "He looked a little flat. I don't know if it was wrestling in that venue (the Palace), but we've certainly seen it before. And if you're not at your very best there, you can get beat."

Zach Jameson (145) won his second match, a 6-2 defeat of New Boston Huron's Chad Koch, but lost to third-place finisher Matt Armock of Sparta and seventh-place Ryan Dietrich of Coopersville.

"We knew he would have a tough road coming in as a number four seed," Keeton said. "He looked pretty good, and it was great that as a senior he was able to make it there and experience the finals."

Matt Franklin (160) could have brought home a medal after winning his first two matches, but was disqualified from the tournament for flagrant misconduct while being pinned at the close of his semifinal match.

"There's no excuses for what he did, but in four year's I've never had any issues with him as far as doing anything unsportsmanlike or flagrant," Keeton said. "Personally, I think it was a panic move from a kid who hadn't been on his back all year. We were absolutely shocked because he's always been a gracious winner and loser. It's a tough lesson for him, that you can do the right things for a long time and then do something like this, and this is what people will remember about him. It's too bad, but it's the way 'real life' works, too.

"I do think it's double jeopardy, though, that he doesn't get a sixth-place medal. If you eject a kid from a baseball game two innings after he hit a grand slam, you don't take the runs off the board, so to me he's getting punished twice for the same thing."

Also in Division 2, John Glenn's Brandon Wrzesinski came home with one win under his belt, a 9-2 victory over Hazel Park's Nevin Bogaert.

In Division 3, Roscommon's day was the highlight for area teams as the Bucks brought home a state title and two more medals out of their four participants. Schneider swept through his four matches, opening with a pair of pins, surviving a 3-1 overtime match with Dundee's Garrett Stevens in the semifinals and winning the state title with a 4-0 victory over Grant Overcashier of Goodrich.

Trevor Tyler (152) took fifth place, wrestling the distance in all six of his matches, including a pair of one-point wins and a 9-4 decision over Chippewa Hills' Billy Fate in the fifth-place match.

Brandon Roose (135) took sixth , winning three of his first four before withdrawing due to an injury default.

Derek Bradley (189) didn't place but won a 2-0 overtime decision over Alma's Bill Hubbard in the consolation bracket.

Oscoda's Monte Fouchey had his storybook season end with a state medal in hand as he survived an opening-round meeting with unbeaten defending champion (and eventual two-time champ) Jarod Trice of Highland Park. Fouchey was able to stay with Trice for about a minute before being pinned 1:21, but came back with three consecutive wins: a pin of Grand Rapids Catholic Central's Will Reibel (4:26), a 10-3 decision over Octavio Romero of Delton Kellogg, and a 4-2 victory over Jacob Fuller of East Jackson. Fouchey lost his last two matches but still claimed the sixth-place position.

Ironically, Trice was also the first-round opponent last year of Oscoda's Justin Collier, whom he also handed a first-period pin. Trice pinned his next two opponents and won the state title with a 17-5 major decision.

Pinconning's Corey Woodruff (145) finished sixth after dropping his first-round match, 7-5 to Ryan Lake of Brooklyn Columbia Central, the eventual state runner-up. Woodruff came back to pin two opponents in the consolation bracket, but lost his medal-round matches, including an 18-7 major decision in the fifth place match to Reed City's Jacob Johnson.

Standish-Sterling's Dewey Milan (152) lost both of his matches. Milan opened with a 10-1 loss to Hamilton's Shawn Pitsch (the eventual fourth-place finisher), then lost a 4-2 decision in the elimination bracket to end his state tournament stay.

Whittemore-Prescott's Robert Johnstone (145) came back from a tough 6-4 loss in his opening match to earn a fifth-place finish in Division 4. Johnstone topped Chris Marx of Sandusky and St. Louis' Cody Eyer in elimination matches, earned a 3-1 overtime decision of Cassapolis' John McCoy but lost to a 7-3 decision to Nate Beilby of Climax-Scotts in the consolation semifinal. Johnstone edged Shane Schoneboom of Bronson 8-4 in the fifth-place match.

Hugh Jenkins (171) had a 12-6 lead in the third period of his opener, but saw eventual fourth-place finisher Kyle Hilliard come back for a 13-12 victory. Jenkins rebounded to defeat Chris Morgan of Memphis in his first elimination match, but lost another heartbreaker, 11-9 to Decatur's Matt Johnson.