The Munising wrestling team had a pretty good showing at the Division 4 individual wrestling regional on Saturday. The meet was held down at Charlevoix, and the Mustangs were able to get Logan Gould, Joe Kelley and Korbyn Smith to all take fourth place to punch their tickets to the state finals.
“Overall, the day went about as expected,” head coach Joe Dolaskie said. “With six wrestlers qualifying for regionals, exactly half that number managed to move on to the state tournament. There were a few wrestlers that I think could have made it if they had a different seed or a little bit of luck, but I’m not disappointed.”
Gould competed in the 120 weight class. He lost his first match, but bounced back with a third period pin on Quintyn Allen of Tawas Area. In the blood round he had a 5-3 sudden victory over Jedidiah Brady of St. Ignace. He did lose his third place match to Jhonas Williams of Oscoda on a 10-0 major decision.
Smith moves on in the 144 weight class. He lost his opening match, but had pins in his next two bouts; over Kaleb Baker of Manistique and Keegan Ritchie of Alcona to punch his finals’ ticket. He came up short in the third place bout to Hayden O’Neil of Newberry.
In 165, Kelley was able to move on. He had a win on a third period pin overTyler Crew of Roscommon in the opening round, but lost his next match. He won his blood round match in a 4-2 decision over Andre Bradford of Inland Lakes. His day wrapped up when he came up short in his third place match against Bradon Walstrom of Iron Mountain.
Andrew Cain (126), Drew VanLandschoot (132) and Cody Lincoln (138) also had wins in the tournament, but each one unfortunately lost their blood round matches.
On Sunday, Munising sent two wrestlers down to Cadillac for girls’ regionals. Emily Kelley (135) and Kaylynn Johnson (155) both battled well in their matches, but were unable to move on to the state finals.
On Wednesday, Feb. 14, Munising saw its team season come to close. The Mustangs lost to Iron Mountain, 47-29, in a semi-final bout held at St. Ignace.
“We knew we didn’t match up well against Iron Mountain,” Dolaskie said. “They have a strong senior class this year with multiple state placers. Overall, the match went as expected, and we even eked out a few points that I didn’t think we’d score. I’m happy with how the guys wrestled and look forward to next year.”
Getting wins on pinfalls were Andrew Cain (126), Drew Vanlandschoot (132) and Nolan Dolaskie (144).
The individual state finals are March 1 and March 2 at Ford Field in Detroit.
