Bennett and Dubose are National Champions!
Michigan finishes 2nd overall with 10 All-Americans; Bennett named OW
NHSCA Senior Nationals
Virginia Beach, VA
March 28-30
3/31 - For those out there who did not know before, now they know:
the state of Michigan belongs mentioned among the best in
wrestling. After finishing 2nd overall at the prestigous NHSCA Senior
Nationals this weekend, beating notorious wrestling states like
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and California, Michigan has now officially earned
the status as one of the best wrestling states in the country.
Two individual champs led the way for Michigan as Ben Bennett of
Rockford and Marcel Dubose of Highland Park each claimed titles at
171 and 215lbs respectively.
Bennett won 7-2 in the championship finals over Hunter Collins of
California to seal the deal after an impressive weekend. With a 1-0
lead heading into the third period Collins chose down and Bennett
used a nasty leg ride to score 6 nearfall points and put the match out
of reach.
Following the win Bennett was excited to win, but still looking forward,
"It's awesome (to win). That was my goal to win this and I
accomplished it, but I now I gotta keep working." he said in a
FloWrestling post match interview.
Bennett entered the weekend ranked 8th in the Amateur Wrestling News' March 13th rankings, however, Bennett knocked off the #3, #7, and #11 ranked wrestlers en route to the title. His finals opponent Collins was ranked third and is headed to Ann Arbor next fall to wrestle for the University of Michigan. Bennett, who is headed to CMU, may be seeing Collins again over the next 4 years. For his impressive performance Bennett was named the tournament's most outstanding wrestler.
Marcel Dubose needed extra stanzas to win over fellow Michigan state champ Travis
Pettengill of Kearsley in the 215lb finals. Dubose, who is widely known as one of the
best big men in the country, avenged his two losses to Pettengill from a year ago to
win his second national title of the year.
"I take what they give me and with him (Pettengill) I know he is gonna counter and
thats how he always gotten points on me by countering so I waited on him this time
and got to overtime, then I had to take it." said Dubose in his FloWrestling interview.
Dubose also won the junior national greco championship in Fargo last July. The bout
with Pettengill was won in overtime as Dubose rode Pettengill out for thirty seconds
and then escaped quickly when he was down to win 2-1.
Along with Pettengill, Mark Weber also finished the tournament as a runner up as he fell 6-4 to Chase Skonieczny of Ohio. Weber scored first in the match, however, Skonieczny would rally late to upset Weber and win the 135lb championship.
Michigan had a total of 10 all-americans as 6 other wrestlers came back through the
consolations to finish in the top 8. Jacob Burge of Mason nearly made it two
all-Michigan finals as he lost in overtime to Hunter Collins in the 171lb quarterfinals 5-3.
A win would have possibly led to a Bennett-Burge 171lb finals as Burge came all the
way back after his quarterfinal loss to finish 3rd. Along the way Burge beat the #7, #9,
and #12 nationally ranked wrestlers in his weight class.
Utica Eisenhower's Brett Corell surprised many as he made a name for himself,
finishing 4th at 285lbs. In the consolation semifinals Correll scored a big 9-0 win over Ohio's John Hiles. Intermat has Hiles ranked 11th in the country and they also ranked him as the #72 recruit in the country last fall. In the finals Correll fell to Sam Maresh of Minnesota. The Eisenhower senior placed above not only Hiles, but also #4 ranked Atticus Disney of Kansas.
Also making some noise was Zac Stevens of Monroe, who fought a long road to come back and finish 4th at 125lbs. Stevens received a rough draw as he lost to eventual champ Scotti Sentes of Florida in the 2nd round. Following his loss Stevens rattled off 7 straight wins to land himself in the 3rd place match, where he lost to New Jersey's Joe Stanzione 7-3.
Bryan Rickard of Davison fought back at 112lbs as well after losing in the round of 16 to Grant Sutter of Wisconsin. Rickard came back going 2-1 in the wrestlebacks to earn a spot in the 5th place match where he won a rematch with Sutter to finish 5th at 112lbs.
Brennan Brumley of Warren Woods Tower lost a close 4-2 match in the round of 16 to eventual champion and #1 ranked Jason Chamberlain of Utah. Brumley came back, however, defeating two straight Michiganders to make the all-american round. Brumley defeated D3 state champ Donnie Corby of Croswell-Lexington 5-0 and then won in overtime 4-2 over 2007 D2 champ Garrett Rozeboom of Mason in the blood round to advance to the top 8. He then won one more before losing and wrestling for 5th place. In the final match Brumley fell to 2x North Carolina state champ Justin Koren.
Mason state champ LJ Helbig came back to finish 7th after losing in the quarterfinals. Helbig lost in the 2-1 in overtime to Utah's 2x state champ Adam Fager to drop into the 7th place match. In the finals Helbig scored a 7-2 win over 3x Arizona state champ Diego Bencomo to finish 7th.
The only state to score more points than Michigan was New Jersey, who ended up more than 15 points ahead. 2nd place and 10 all-americans were both record highs for the state of Michigan.
Unfortunatley, 0 Michigan wrestlers were allowed to compete in the Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior Nationals that were held days prior to the Senior Nationals.
Michigan Grappler would like to congratulate all the wrestlers who competeted this weekend and represented the state of Michigan. Congratulations and good luck!
Michigan's All-Americans
171 - Ben Bennett - 1st
215 - Marcel Dubose - 1st
135 - Mark Weber - 2nd
215 - Travis Pettengill - 2nd
171 - Jacob Burge - 3rd
285 - Brett Corell - 4th
125 - Zac Stevens - 4th
112 - Bryan Rickard - 5th
140 - Brennan Brumley - 6th
189 - LJ Helbig - 7th
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