John Glenn celebrates its first-ever NEMC title on Saturday.
Pinny's (l-r) Seth Haas, Corey Woodruff, Charlie Burch, Tyler Espitia and Adam Pawelski all won individual league titles as the Spartans took first place in the finals tournament and tied for second place overall.
Standish-Sterling's Mark Stawowy (left) had to go to overtime to defeat Oscoda's Todd Kerentoff for the 215-lb. title.
Ogemaw Heights' Jaycee Henretta wrestled to a third-place finish at 112-lbs.
Oscoda's Matt Tompkins took the mat for the Owls' last-ever NEMC match and finished second overall at 112.

PINCONNING - Feb. 9, 2008 - Pinconning and John Glenn each had reason to strut after Saturday's North East Michigan Conference wrestling tourney.

The Spartans, who finished third in the league dual meet standings, showed why they're a much tougher squad to handle in the individual tournament format by winning the league finals tourney by edging the Bobcats by 4.5 points. But Glenn, which was unbeaten in league duals, won its first-ever league title by virtue of its second-place finals finish, turning in a strong performance despite wrestling without one of its top contributors.

Pinny finished with 152 points to Glenn's 147.5, while third-place Ogemaw Heights (127.5) saw its NEMC title string end at four. Oscoda (106) took fourth place as it bowed out of the NEMC, while shorthanded Standish-Sterling (57) and Whittemore-Prescott (22) rounded out the field.

"We had some injuries, and without (defending league champ) Ryan LaFlure (140 pounds) I was a little worried," said JG coach Jerry LaFlure. "Plus with no school (due to snow), we hadn't been able to practice for a couple days and I was concerned about making weight.

"But the kids wrestled with a lot of heart. Our 'pinners' pinned, and our freshmen stepped up."

The Bobcats and Pinny each claimed five individual titles to easily lead the pack. Glenn's winners included Kooper Martinez (103), Steve Guigar (112), John Gaiser (145), Brandon Wrzesinski (171) and Justin LaFlure (189). The Bobcats went 8-3 in medal-round matches, with Chris Pappas (135) also reaching the championship match.

"We started the year with some high goals," Jerry LaFlure said. "We wanted to win the (Bay) County meet, which we hadn't won, and we got that. We wanted to win this (first NEMC title), and our next goal is the (team) district.

"Well try to stay healthy, and we hope to get Ryan back."

The Spartans went 7-4 in medal-round matches, barely outpointing the Bobcats for the day by getting one more wrestler to the championship match. Winning league titles were Adam Pawelski (119), Tyler Espitia (125), Seth Haas (135), Charlie Burch (140) and Corey Woodruff (152). Taylor Pomaville (103) and Tyler Wieland (130) also reached the title match.

"I was pretty confident the guys would perform well," said Pinny coach Wayne Purtell. "They all wrestled extremely well. We've come together very nicely as a team and a family.

"It's hard for us to win many dual meets, but we've gotten pretty hot as a tournament team. We've been pushing hard in practice, and it's the time in the season when you really want to be performing well and wrestling with a lot of intensity. We're starting to see that."

Ogemaw needed everything to go right to have a shot at catching Glenn and extending its string of league championships, but that didn't happen. The Falcons, who have struggled most of the season with injuries, weren't healthy enough to stay with the front-runners.

"We knew we needed some upsets to have a chance," said Falcon coach Darryl Keeton. "Unfortunately we didn't get them. I was hoping we'd be over dealing with some injuries and illness by now, but we're not."

The Falcons went 5-8 in medal-round matches, but only Andrew Funsch (130) came away with a league title. Michael Lentz (140), Matt Keeton (145), Drake Killinger (152), Alex Kimball (160) and Anthony Carollo (189) each reached the championship match.

"Obviously having Andrew win was nice, even though it was something we were counting on," Keeton said. "Anthony beating (Pinny's Coty Swinson 2-1) that he'd lost to earlier was good for us too.

"We had some good and some bad, but overall we just didn't have it today."

Oscoda, which is leaving the NEMC at the end of the school year, had Monte Fouchey (285) defend his 2007 league title with a pair of pins. the Owls went 4-6 in medal-round matches, with Matt Tompkins (112), Kyle Myers (119), Justin Andrick (171) and Todd Kerentoff (215) each reach the final match. Andrick and Kerentoff came close to pulling off wins, with Andrick losing 4-3 and Kerentoff pushing Standish-Sterling's Mark Stawowy to multiple overtime periods before losing 3-1.

SSC sent just seven wrestlers to the mat, but went 3-3 in medal-round matches and crowned Stawowy (215) and Machylle Porter (160) as champions. Milton Thayer (285) also reached a title match.

"We had two champions and a second and a third place out of seven," said SSC coach Jim Hergott. "I can't be unhappy with that.

"Jacob Bialobrzeski wrestled really well in his consolation match. Earlier in the year he'd lost to him, but came back to beat him in the last 30 seconds. The kids wrestled as well as they have. I'm hoping that even in some of the matches we didn't win that the kids understand that they still wrestled well. Not winning a match doesn't mean you didn't wrestle well."

Whittemore-Prescott, with just four wrestlers, had Greg Draves reach the finals match at 125.

Repeating as champions were Pawelski, Funsch, Woodruff, Wrzesinski and Fouchey.

The meet was marked by one of the thinnest fields in years. Tawas Area's team folded early in the season, and only Ogemaw Heights was able to fill all its weight classes, though even the Falcons had a much smaller roster than they've had in recent seasons. Several weight classes featured just three competitors, while Porter won his title without wrestling a match after the Falcons' Alex Kimball bowed out after winning his semifinal match due to injury default.

The six teams all head to team district competition this week. John Glenn hosts Ogemaw, Mt. Morris and Clio in a Divisioin2 district at Glenn on Wednesday, while Whittemore-Prescott travels to Mio for Division 4 competition.

On Thursday, Oscoda is at Roscommon with Houghton Lake in Division 3, while Standish-Sterling and Pinconning are at Bullock Creek with Freeland.

The winners of each district advance to team district competition on Wednesday, Feb. 20.

Individual district competition takes place Saturday, Feb. 16. Ogemaw and Glenn travel to Gaylord, SSC and Pinny are at Caro, Oscoda makes the long trip to Negaunee while W-P goes cross-state to Kingsley. The top four finishers in each weight class in each individual district advance to individual regional competition on Feb. 23.