It a special night for wrestling at one West Michigan Conference school and a very unusual one at another location on Wednesday.
Next up is the WMC meet Friday at Whitehall’s Viking Athletic Center. Wrestling begins at 3 p.m.
Here is a roundup of the action from Jan. 31, 2024, based upon info and images submitted to CatchMark SportsNet:
AT WHITEHALL
It had been at least a decade since Montague had claimed a wrestling victory over neighboring rival Whitehall. It happened Wednesday in unusual fashion — via disqualification from a clerical issue.
“Whitehall was dominating the dual 47-0 when they appeared to send a wrestler out who had no weight listed,” Montague coach Kris Maddox said. “This created an illegal wrestler being checked in and causing (the Whitehall team) to be DQ’d.”
Whitehall, which is ranked second in Division 3, defeated Fremont by a score of 72-6. Winners for the Vikings included Cody Manzo, Kolten Weiler, Max Krukowski, Nolan Taranko, Caden Varela, Liam Leeke, Darnell Mack, Blake English, Ryan Goodrich, Gavin Craner, Trenton TenBrock, Blake Morningstar, and Jason Smith.
Montague also defeated Fremont, 43-33. Wildcats wrestlers going 1-0 included Kaiden Jeffery, Jimmy Thommen, Savannah Winkleblack, Emma Pendall, and Ava Pelton.
“Kaiden Jeffery wrestled really well tonight,” Maddox said. “He and Savannah Winkleblack sealed the win against Fremont for us. Both came away with clutch pins at key moments.”
Tee Ward finished 2-0 in the tri-meet for Fremont.
AT HESPERIA
Photos by Mia Milner for CatchMark
It was a special evening at Hesperia, which hosted the 15th annual Pink-Out event.
Hesperia defeated Ravenna (72-12) and Muskegon Catholic Central (53-27).
Double-winners for Hesperia included Oliver Evans, Stephen Priese, Camden Flanery, Aiden Smith, Blake Sayer, Dominick Smith, Skyler Stalbaum, and Noah Walker.
Check out the photos above from the Pink-Out shot by Mia Milner, who is a Hesperia senior and CatchMark SportsNut.
AT OAKRIDGE
Hart dominated the competition in WMC action at Oakridge, earning first place in the Rivers Division for the dual portion of the regular season. Hart defeated North Muskegon (57-12) and Oakridge (70-9).
Against North Muskegon, Hart won 11 of 14 matches. Winners for the Pirates include Jose Chavira, Michael Chavira, Kole Thomas, Noah Zost, Logan Jorissen, Ty Thomas, Joseluis Andaverde, Josue Salgado, Alex Hicks, Ivan Lara, and Adrian Lara.
In the nightcap against Oakridge, Hart got victories from Chavira, Caden VanGelderen, Thomas, Jorissen, Kai Miller, Andaverde, Salgado, Haegan Hansen, Emman Hertzler, Hicks, Ivan Lara, and Adrian Lara. Hart finishes the regular season with a record of 22-6.
AT MASON COUNTY CENTRAL
Mason County Central swept its home WMC duals on senior night and parents night. The Spartans defeated Shelby (42-30) and Holton (53-27).
“Every senior won their last match in the home gym,” MCC coach Kendel Trim said.
“The Shelby dual was big as we have lost to them several times this year. This is the first time that we have had every wrestler in the lineup and we were able to pull off a win against our conference rival.”
Seniors Aiden Hirschfeld, Zane McCabe, and Brayden Overmyer all won both matches on the night. Hirschfeld had a fall against Shelby’s Daniel Thomas to close out the dual and sealed the win for MCC, and then he had a technical fall against Jacob Crowell of Holton.
McCabe had a fall against Ben Cedarquist of Shelby in his first match and recorded another fall against D’Rico Spytma of Holton. Overmyer won by fall over Bryce Newman of Shelby in the first match and then also recorded another fall against Donald Burket of Holton.
Senior Austin Tromp won his final match against Thomas Ingram of Holton by fall. Senior Noah Padgett won his final match in the gym by fall as well.
Underclassmen winning both matches on the night were junior Hunter Sanford, freshman William Thomsen, junior Colter Kirchner, and sophomore Parker Overmyer.
“Also winning a key match against Shelby was junior Nyveah Wendt, who defeated Christian Wright of Shelby, 9-6,” Trim said. “Nyveah had great composure in this match and defeated a wrestler she had lost to before. It was a tremendous effort on her part to finish off this match with a win.”
