Hurons second at Gaylord Northern Michigan Championships
by Angie Asam– Staff Writer
The senior Huron wrestlers and captains again led the way as Rogers City earned second place at the Northern Michigan Wrestling Championships in Gaylord Saturday. A field of 22 teams fought for the title, and the Hurons finished just 49.5 points behind Gaylord. Senior Chase McLennan earned his third Northern Michigan Wrestling Championship and earned the title of Most Valuable Wrestler for the upper weight classes. McLennan won his first match of the day by pin in 1:13, earned a major decision, 15-4, in his second match, took a close 7-4 decision in his third match, and won 11-5 in his final match over Eric Madill of Grayling.
?Chase was just awesome; he put together a total match against a young man who had beat him a week earlier. And I think he had a little bit of revenge on his mind, and he wrestled probably one of the better matches that he has wrestled all year. He wrestled the way he has to do in order to be a state champion this year. He has worked extremely hard this year, and he deserves all the accolades he can get. It is a major achievement to be a three-time champion at this tournament; there has only been 3 or 4 guys who have won it four times. I am very proud of him for that, and he certainly deserved to be named MVP,? said coach Pat Lamb.
T.J. Sobeck earned his second NMWC championship at 119 pounds. As the number one seed, Sobeck had a first round bye before winning by pin in 1:36 in round two and pin in 3:24 in round three. In the finals against Zeke Daman of Charlevoix, someone Sobeck has faced and beat three times this season, he was again victorious by a score of 4-1. Senior 135-pound wrestler Tharin Wilk, who lost for just the second time last week in the finals at Ithaca went undefeated to win his second NMWC championship. Wilk won his first match by pin in 1:30. In his second match of the day Wilk put on a show, winning the match by technical fall in 5:46 by a score of 26-11. He then had his first close match of the day, winning 6-3, before gearing up for a final match that pitted him against Andrew Olds of Gaylord. Wilk was again victorious in the close match, 6-3.
?After Tharin?s match, a downstate official came up to me and said ?that was like refereeing a state finals match; both those kids were evenly matched. Your wrestler was in better condition and took advantage of any mistakes that were made out there,?? said coach Lamb. ?I am really proud of all three of those guys (McLennan,
Sobeck, and Wilk) for what they accomplished on Saturday.? Jerome Gapczynski won his first match by pin in just 27 seconds, took an 8-3 decision in his second match, and a 4-1 decision in match three to put him in the finals. In the finals against Josh Marcotte of Gaylord, Gapczynski fought from behind almost the entire ma
SENIOR DUSTIN HEIN, who wrestles at 145 pounds, was able to go 3-2 on the day and finish in fourth place. Coach Lamb was pleased with the efforts of Hein saying, Freshman heavyweight Devin Pommerenke also finished the day in fourth place with a 3-2 record. Travis Fleis took 7th at 103 pounds, and going into the tournament the team had a goal that if they lost in the first round, they were going to fight back to earn seventh place. Ben Tulgestke took 8th place at 140 pounds and wrestled well all day. Greg Tulgestke (112) and Alex Matthews (130) were both 1-2 on the day.
THE HURONS TRAVELED to Mio last Wednesday for a dual meet and defeated the Thunderbolts 58-21; their season record now stands at 21-3. Winning matches by void were: Travis Fleis (103), Luke Ryan (130), Dustin Hein (145) and Jerome Gapczynski (171). Winning by pin were: T.J. Sobeck (119, 3:26), Michael Vogler (125, 3:09), Chase McLennan (189, 1:20), Derek Schleben (215, 3:27) and Devin Pommerenke (285, 0:31). Tharin Wilk won his match at 135 pounds by a score of 13-4 for a major decision.