Holiday wrestling recap
1/5 - The Holiday break was far from not very relaxing in the world of Michigan wrestling as everyone from youths to preps to collegiates were keeping busy over the holidays. Get caught up with everything that went down over the past few weeks in MI Grappler's holiday recap:
HIGH SCHOOL
The prep action was the busiest and it all started before Christmas even came. December 22nd, the weekend before Santa's big day, two prime time Invitiationals were going on at opposite ends of the state. The Marquette Challenge featured some of the Michigan's best LP grapplers against the best of the UP, meanwhile, Oakland County's best met up in Clarkston to battle for county bragging rights. D1 contender Holt was also in action on the 22nd as they wrapped up at the treterous North Canton Invite in Ohio. The action picked right back up after Christmas as some of the best teams and individuals in the state congregated in Goodrich for the Tournament of Champions.
- Marquette Challenge - The tournament shaped up to be a two team race between Mason & Temperance Bedford. Bedford edged Mason in the end by 3 points. Jacob Burge of Mason was voted outstanding wrestler after pinning all his opponents in the first period, including a 20 second fall in the finals. Many bigtime matchups, Allen Krupp of New Lothrop won at 119, probably the deepest weight. Krupp beat Joe Mileski of Gladstone in the finals after routing all stater TJ Sobeck of Rogers City 12-3 in the semis. The 119lb chart featured 5 returning state placers from last year. Mason racked up 5 individual titles with some notable finals wins including Conor Youtsey, who picked up a big win over Chad Deno of Gladstone, Craig Eifert beating Bill Osborne of Bedford, and LJ Helbig outlasting Nick Whitenburg of Bedford. FULL MARQUETTE RECAP
- Oakland County Tournament - Lake Orion turned some heads in Oakland County as they upended Clarkston & DCC from the top of the County todum pole. Lake Orion finished 7pts ahead of 2nd place DCC who was followed from afar by Clarkston, Holly, and Rochester Adams. Josh Houldsworth was name OW for the lower weights as he absolutely dominated the 130lb bracket. Houldsworth pinned Troy Athens' John Keyes in the first period of their final round bout. Raylen Davis of Royal Oak was the surprise of the tournament as he won a loaded 189lb weight class. Davis knocked off Clarkston's all-stater Bryant Craft in the semis and then capped his tournament off with a 3-2 win over another state placer in Evan Gros of Lake Orion. Davis was the OW of the upper weights. Lake Orion's Jake Varilek kept his winning ways as he picked up a 10-2 major decision in the 152lb finals over Ketterning's all-stater Tom Willits. FULL OAK COUNTY RESULTS
- Goodrich Tournament of Champions - Hello Hesperia! The top team in D4, who entered the tournament #9 in the Power Rankings, outgunned D3's top two squads Dundee & Goodrich as well as #3 from D2 Greenville to win this bear of a tournament. The most anticipated match of the holiday break came here at 140 as Mark Weber of Goodrich got a shot at revenge against WWT's Brennan Brumley after Brumley upended Weber earlier in the month. Brumley came out with a 4-0 win, proving his first win was no fluke and solidfiying him as the real deal. Another reigning D3 champ got to avenge an early season loss at 103 as Swan Valley's BJ Suitor had a rematch with Dundee's freshman phenom Chris Rau in the finals. Suitor evened the score with Rau as he came out on top 4-0. A couple other notables: Josh White of Dundee knocked off returning D2 champ Tyler Keselring of Greenville at 119lbs to win a loaded weight class. Deven Brown of Airport made a name for himself, knocking off two state placers in Brandon Zeerip of Hesperia and Ryan Lake of BCC to win at 145lbs. Big Travis Pettengill was back down to 215 where he handled Jimmy Rowe of Dundee 10-4 in the finals. FULL GOODRICH TOC RESULTS
- North Canton Holiday Invite - D1 power Holt made the trip to Canton, OH where they finished 4th in a deep tournament. Holt had 0 finalists, however, Koort Leyrer, Zach Shaw, and Corbin Boone all finished 3rd with one loss. FULL NORTH CANTON RECAP
There was many other marquee prep events going on this break, if you have results that we do not have posted send them to results@michigangrappler.com
College
The Michigan colleges were very busy as well this break, most notably with the prestigous Midland Championships. CMU & MSU both sent full squads to the Midlands and Olivet set some grapplers as well. CMU finished 3rd as a team behind their 10 individual placewinners. MSU finished 10th and had a strong showing from Franklin Gomez who finished runner up at 133. A pair of Davison grads, Brent Metcalf & Jon Reader, both made the Midlands Finals at 149 and 165lbs. Metcalf dominated Jake Patascil of Purde en route to the title and Reader fell to Metcalf's current teammate, NCAA Champ Mark Perry. FULL MIDLANDS RECAP
In addition, there were a couple former Michigan prep stars who competed well representing out of state schools. EMU & Michigan were in action as well at Michigan's Wolverine Quad. UofM looked impressive as they cruised past EMU, Lehigh, and Buffalo. Eastern looked good as well, going 3-1 losing only to Michigan.
Youth
The little guys have been wrestling over the holidays as well. The BorderWars Winter Nationals were held in Battle Creek on the December 29th with the All-Star Xmas duals following on the 30th. In addition, many Michiganders traveled down to the Dixie Nationals in Atlanta and the MYWAY Spartan Country is going on Jan 6th in East Lansing. The MYWAY Season is getting underway so youth wrestling is beginning to heat up! We will have Dixie National and Spartan Country Results as they become available. Also, a Fab 50 standings update will be coming soon! Check the Fab 50 page frequently as events may be added.
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