Ogemaw's Andrew Funsch won both his 130-pound matches as the Falcons went 2-0 on Wednesday.
Ogemaw's Justiun Brindley had early control of Oscoda's Kevin Beland, but Beland came back to win the 152-pound match.
Ogemaw's Jaycee Henretta and Oscoda's Erika Nolff competed at 112 pounds in their opening match.
Brent Baker
Pinny's Seth Haas goes to work on SSC's Bryan Jones during Wednesday's match.

STANDISH-STERLING - Jan. 16, 2008 - A rather odd night on the wrestling mats resulted in Ogemaw Heights gaining a pair of North East Michigan Conference dual meet victories, while Standish-Sterling and Oscoda each earned splits. Pinconning ended up dropping both matches, though how that happened was a source of considerable angst.

More on that later.

The Falcons, who suffered considerable graduation losses from last season and struggled against a difficult non-conference schedule, defeated Oscoda 42-30 and Pinny 53-15. Oscoda earned its win with a 54-28 defeat of Standish-Sterling, while the Panthers got past Pinny 42-40.

Ogemaw, which will really be put to the test when it hosts John Glenn on Jan. 23, built a 36-30 lead over Oscoda by taking care of business in the light and middleweights, surviving the Owls' strength in the upper weights to earn the win. The Falcons were also without the services of coach Darryl Keeton, who sat out the match for a school policy violation.

"It went pretty much the way I thought it would go," said Oscoda coach Tony Lopez. "We had two kids out, which is 12 potential points. But it's the closest we've been to them in recent history.

"We'd have liked to have been on top, but that's not the way it worked out."

Ogemaw got wins from Masen Henretta (103 pounds, pin), Jaycee Henretta (112, pin), Chris Hebert (119, pin), Andrew Funsch (130, pin), Kyle Scott (135, 3-2 decision), Michael Lentz (140, 5-0 decision) and Anthony Carollo (189, pin).

Winning matches for the Owls were Steven Rhonehouse (125, pin), Kevin Beland (152, pin), Tim Ruby (160, pin) Justin Andrick (171, pin), Todd Kerentoff (215, 15-10 decision) and Monte Fouchey (285, pin).

Ogemaw's winners against Pinconning were Masen Henretta (112, tech fall), Hebert (119, 14-10 decision), Gale Kimball (125, void), Lentz (140, pin), Matt Keeton (145, void), Drake Killinger (152, pin), Allen Good (171, void), Josh Burton (215, void) and Zack Burton (285, void).

Pinconning's winners were Seth Haas (135, 8-1 decision), Shane Dixon ( 160, pin), Coty Swinson (189, 4-2 decision) and Tyler Espitia (103, 10-7 decision).

It was a particularly frustrating night for the Spartans, who thanks to five voids gave up 30 points to the Falcons, but hoped to earn a split with a win against Standish-Sterling.

They likely would have, too, if not for an innocent but costly mistake.

After Corey Woodruff won his 160-pound match with Machylle Porter by technical fall, good for five points for the team, SSC coach Jim Hergott noted that Woodruff's weight had never been listed on the weigh-in sheets required for each match. Woodruff's win was forfeited, not only taking away his five team points but awarding six to SSC, an 11-point turnaround. The Panthers' Brad Bialobrzeski earned a pin in the 171 match, and Pinny had to void its last two weight classes (not having a 215 or heavyweight to compete) and the Panthers took a 42-40 victory.

"It was a tough night," said Pinny coach Wayne Purtell. "We're voiding a lot of weights anyway, and have three guys hurt. Right now I'm just really frustrated with myself, though. The (weigh-in mistake) was a major brain-fart."

Woodruff also was ineligible to wrestle against Ogemaw due to the error.

"I know it was an honest mistake, but I had to do what was best for my kids," Hergott said. "I figured if we did what I expected we could win six matches. 42 is the magic number (an insurmountable total), and that got us there.

"It's a tough thing, but not the sort of thing you can let go."

The Panthers got wins from Matt Peters (125, void), Kegan Luce (145, void), Ryan Veitengruber (152, pin), Brad Bialobrzeski (171, pin), Mark Stawowy (215, void) and Milton Thayer (285, void).

The Spartans' wins came from Arthur Espitia (103, void), Tyler Espitia (112, void), Taylor Pomaville (119, void), Tyler Wieland (130, 18-4 major decision), Seth Haas (135, pin), Charlie Burch (140, void) and Swinson (void).

"We wrestled Pinny a lot better this time than we did last week," Hergott said. "A number of kids came through and wrestled really well. Even the ones that didn't win did better than last week. Jake Bialobrzeski was one. He was pinned by Wieland last week, so this time his job was not to get pinned, and he didn't.

"We also got a JV win from Anja Bramhoff, and it was nice to get that."

The Panthers gave up too many points in voids to be able to stay with Oscoda, which took that match 54-28.

Getting wins for the Owls were Erika Nolff (112, void), Anthony Stanley (119, void), Danny Roberts (140, void), Eric Frasher (145, pin), Kevin Beland (152, pin), Justin Andrick (171, pin), Michael Perkins (189, void), Fouchey (285, pin) and Kasey Copus (103, void).

For the Panthers, winners were Peters (125, pin), Jacob Bialobrzeski (130, pin), Bryan Jones (135, 10-8 decision), Porter (160, injury default), and Stawowy (215, void).

Ogemaw (6-15, 2-0 NEMC) hosts John Glenn (21-10, 1-0) and SSC on Wednesday, Jan. 23 in a tri-meet that will go a long way toward determining the top seed at February's NEMC finals. Pinny will host Oscoda and Whittemore-Prescott the same night.