Whitehall state champion wrestler wins again: This time, in Player of Week fan poll

Shane Cook completed the dream wrestling season last Saturday at Ford Field.

The Whitehall senior capped a 62-0 season with a Division 3 state championship in the 285-pound weight class with a 9-5 decision over Birch Run’s Landen Roe in the finals.

Today (Friday, March 10), Cook won again. This time, he finished first in the CatchMark SportsNet West Michigan Conference Player of the Week fan poll.

Six winter sports athletes from the conference, who stood out in competitions Feb. 27-March 4, 2023, were nominated for Player of the Week.

Cook finished first in the fan poll with 1,707 of 3,554 total votes. Runner-up in the poll was another all-state wrestler, Hesperia senior Alex Gleason (641 votes), who placed third in the 150-pound weight class of the Division 4 state wrestling finals.

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

Cook, who was a starting lineman for Whitehall’s dominant football team, became the third person in Vikings wrestling history to become an undefeated state champion. Ira Jenkins did it twice (2021, 2022), while Tim Cooper (1980) was the other one.

With Cook this season and Jenkins in 2021 and 2022, that’s three straight undefeated state champs for Whitehall wrestling.

In addition to on-mat success, it was announced that Whitehall has earned Team Academic All-State Honors from the Michigan Wrestling Association. Collectively, the Vikings sported a 3.88 GPA and Cook was a key part in that.

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