GAYLORD - Jan. 26, 2008 - Virtually all of the area's wrestling teams competed Saturday at the 22-team Northern Michigan Championship meet at Gaylord, the largest and most prestigious meet in the north prior to state tournament action.

Pinconning made the biggest splash of local teams, finishing third overall despite not fielding wrestlers in the two top heavyweight divisions.

Gaylord won the meet with 232.5 points, 50 points ahead of Rogers City (183). The Spartans finished third with 132.5, edging fourth-place Kingsley (123). Other area teams included Mio (7th, 100.5), Ogemaw Heights (13th, 77.5), Oscoda (14th, 69.5), Whittemore-Prescott (21st, 26) and Standish-Sterling (22nd, 9).

"(The Spartans) entered the day with intensity and heart," said Pinny coach Wayne Purtell. "Both of which showed when the day was through."

Pinny's third-place overall finish was also good enough to win them the Division 3 tournament title.

The Spartans had six of their 10 competing wrestlers finish fourth or higher in their weight class, highlighted by Corey Woodruff's sweep through the 152-pound bracket. Woodruff pinned his first two opponents, edged Roscommon's Joe Domsitz (sixth-ranked in the state) in the semifinals 9-3 and defeated Alpena's top-seeded Morgan Stenz in the championship match.

Charlie Burch (140) took second, pinning his first three opponents before dropping an 18-9 decision to Gaylord's Shane Gapinski in the final.

Seth Haas (135) finished third with three pins and Coty Swinson (189) also took third, pinning one. Tyler Espitia (119) and Tyler Wieland (130) each took fourth.

Swinson avenged his only loss of the day in the third-place match. For Wieland it was a big day as he won his 100th career match, becoming the 29th Spartan to do so and joined his father Kevin as the school's first father-son combination to reach that milestone.

Ogemaw had five medalists, including one champion in Andrew Funsch.

Funsch (130) had two pins in his four matches, including one of Cheboygan's Jarred Palenz in the championship match.

Others in the top eight included Michael Lentz (140, 6th place), Drake Killinger (152, 6th), Alex Kimball (160, 7th) and Anthony Carollo (189, 5th).

Oscoda also had five medalists, led by Justin Andrick (171) in third place. Andrick lost a semifinal match before coming back to defeat Zach Lizenby of St. Francis and Josh NewVille of Kingsley in the consolation bracket.

Other Owls who placed were Monte Fouchey (285, 6th), Matt Tompkins (112, 7th), Danny Roberts (140, 4th) and Tim Ruby (160, 6th).

Three of Whittemore-Prescott's six competing wrestlers placed, with Greg Draves (125) taking seventh, Chance Rattie (135) taking eighth, and Kyle Hucul (152) taking eighth.

Standish-Sterling had just four wrestlers compete and didn't bring home any medals. Ryan Veitengruber (140) went 2-2 on the day and Jake Bialobrzeski (130) won a match.

Mio had a successful day, with Dylan Jensen (112) taking second and Aaron Smith (135, 4th), Luke Larry (140, 3rd), Mike Kososky (145, 5th) and Joe Baldwin (215, 4th) all placing.

Full Results (Gaylord HS Site)