Battle Creek bound Hurons make it four straight

by Angie Asam– Staff Writer

The Hurons are making their fourth consecutive trip to the team state finals in Battle Creek. Rogers City (30-3) will square off against the Springport Spartans (30-9) at 1 p.m. Friday in quarterfinal action. The winner of that match will take on the winner of the Leroy Pine River (26-2) and Manchester (30-5) quarterfinal match in the semifinals at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. At home last Wednesday the Hurons defeated the Munising Mustangs 56-15 in the semifinals and faced the Iron Mountain Mountaineers for the regional title. Junior Luke Ryan, 135 pounds, got the action going and came up with a pin in 3:25 to put the Hurons on top 6-0. The Hurons would never trail in the match.

?Luke Ryan was unbelievable. He has been working hard at practice and we told him to go out there and wrestle like he has been at practice and do his best, and boy, did he ever. He really came through for us. Luke set the tone and really set his teammates on fire and got the crowd going and it snowballed from there. I am really proud of Luke; he persevered and did a great job,? said coach Pat Lamb. At 140 pounds senior, Tharin Wilk won a 7-3 decision making the score 9-0. Ben Tulgestke moved up a weight class to 145 pounds and was pinned, cutting the lead to 9-6. A 13-7 decision, won by senior Dustin Hein at 152 pounds extended the lead to 12-6. Senior Joe Finch, 160 pounds, back after missing more than a month with an injury, was pinned, knotting the score at 12. After losing 1-0 to Iron Mountain?s Bruce Romagnoli in the individual district finals, senior captain Jerome Gapczynski won an 8-4 decision to put the Hurons up 15-12. Coach Lamb was pleased with Gapczynski, saying, ?Jerome just came out totally focused; I could see that in the first match against Munising. Jerome was at home; he was comfortable and he was focused. He knew he had a job to do and he knew that we needed him to win the match; he wasn?t going to be denied.?

Chase McLennan would win by pin at 189 pounds to extend the lead to 21-12. Senior 215-pound Derek Schleben lost on a last second takedown 7-5, making the match score 21-15. Freshman heavyweight Devin Pommerenke avenged a loss by pin in the individual district finals by winning a 5-4 decision. Pommerenke led the match 5-0 in the third period but got stuck on his back trying to go for a reversal. ?Devin just about gave us a heart attack; he was going for a reversal that would have sealed the match, up 5-0, and just got his arm trapped. It was one of those crazy moves where you get trapped on your back but the good thing was that his opponent really had no control and wasn?t able to put any weight on Devin. Devin was able to stay off his back for the final 20 seconds and his win really cemented the victory for us,? said coach Lamb.

With the team score at 24-15, Travis Fleis would step to the mat and suffer a bloody nose that would not stop, giving the mountaineers the win by default. Fleis commented, ?When you talk about my match, just say blood, blood and more blood.? Freshman 112-pound Greg Tulgestke stepped up and earned an 8-6 decision putting the Hurons up 27-21 with three matches to go. ?Last Saturday Greg got pinned by that kid in a li

ttle over a minute. He came out and fought off all his offensive advances. Greg was tenacious; he fought hard, and kept a wide base and good balance for the entire match. He really fought his tail off for his team and came out on top,? said coach Lamb. Senior T.J. Sobeck would win by pin at 119 pounds putting the Hurons ahead 33-21 with two matches remaining. At 125 pounds, senior Michael Vogler earned a tough 2-0 decision, making the score 36-21 Hurons. After missing more than a month with injuries, senior Alex Matthews returned at 130 pounds and won a 4-2 overtime thriller to seal the deal for the Hurons 39-21.

?I have had a lot of great victories as a coach, but this one is right up there. This is probably the best we have ever wrestled as a unit,? said coach Lamb. In the semi-final match against Munising, Pommerenke (285), Sobeck (119) and Vogler (125) would all win by void. Winning by pin were Greg Tulgestke (112), Hein (152), Gapczynski (171), and McLennan (189). Ryan won by major decision at 135, 10-0; Wilk won 12-4 at 145; Schleben won 9-3 at 215, and Fleis won on a late reversal at 103 5-4.

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