State finals-bound wrestler Nick Cano of Shelby scores Player of the Week honor

Shelby’s Nick Cano is proving to be one of the better wrestlers in the West Michigan Conference pound-for-pound.

The state finals-bound Tigers junior definitely has a lot of backing, as was illustrated in the votes he garnered in the CatchMark SportsNet West Michigan Conference Player of the Week fan poll.

Cano was the top vote-getter in the poll for Feb. 13-19, 2023. Six winter sports athletes from the conference who stood out in competitions from that time frame were nominated and Cano came out on top.

He’s the second-straight Shelby male athlete to win the Player of the Week fan poll, as Tigers senior basketball standout Bishop Lee took the honors last week.

Cano finished with 2,712 of 6,594 total votes in poll. He edged Montague junior wrestler Savannah Winkleblack, who like Cano is a regional champion headed for the individual state finals March 3-4 at Ford Field in Detroit. Winkleblack finished with 2,108 votes.

See voting totals for all six Player of the Week nominees at the bottom of this story.

Cano, who wrestles at 106 pounds, captured a Division 3 regional championship last Saturday at Grayling. In the title match, he earned a 4-1 decision over Gladwin’s Brady Demory. That improved Cano’s season record to 42-7 and earned him a spot in next weekend’s state finals.