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Redmen finish job: Marquette wrestlers not sharpest but still win Marquette County Meet

Negaunee’s Finn Helppi, top, gets Marquette’s Jacob Schlemm in a hold during their 160-pound bout of the championship match in the Marquette County high school wrestling meet held at Lakeview Memorial Gym in Negaunee on Thursday. (Journal photo by Amy Grigas)

“Yeah, we got the victory, which is OK, but this time of year, we got to be shoring up things.” — Tony Gentz, head coach, Marquette wrestling

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NEGAUNEE — It’s been a pretty strong season so far for the Marquette wrestling team, but Thursday’s Marquette County Meet left the Redmen with some mixed feelings.

Marquette (14-4) won the five-team meet, beating Ishpeming 54-24 in the semifinals and Negaunee 46-36 in the finals at Lakeview Memorial Gym in Negaunee.

However, Redmen head coach Tony Gentz didn’t feel like his team looked as sharp as it normally does.

“I thought we wrestled sloppy in a lot of situations and a lot of matches,” he said. “I don’t think we put together a solid match in either dual really. Yeah, we got the victory, which is OK, but this time of year, we got to be shoring up things. We made a lot of bad mistakes today and they know that. The kids know that.

“My team has been wrestling really well up until, I think, today. Today we came out flat in both matches. We just wrestled flat. I don’t know if it was the atmosphere or what, but up until this point, we’ve been wrestling really well.

“We won a tournament last week in Kingsford. We wrestled with a lot of urgency and a lot of toughness and we didn’t have that tonight.

“We’ll get back to work tomorrow. We go to Pine River (Invitational in LeRoy) and it’s going to be a gut-check there. We’ve got five dual matches down in Pine River against ranked teams in the state, and we’ll see where we’re at there.”

The finals were pretty much a back-and-forth affair with Negaunee going up 18-6 on a pin by Landen Hillier. However, Marquette got a forfeit from Payton Holmstrom in the next match, followed by first-period pin by Joe Lagrou to tie it 18-18.

Negaunee then got a forfeit victory from Dan Schouten and then notched a second-period pin from John Schouten to go up 30-18. That’s the last time the Miners held a lead, though, as the Redmen won three straight, getting pins from Wyatt Kuhlman, Griffin Moore and Desmond Mullen. Negaunee tied it at 36-36 on a second-period pin from Finn Helppi, but Gideon Bell and Shawn Mahon won the next two matches for Marquette to get the win.

Despite the tough loss, Miners head coach Matt Oswald was in good spirits.

“Overall, I’m really proud of them,” he said of his wrestlers. “The last time, we wrestled Marquette, it was 31-51. We made a few adjustments and we were able to close that gap a little bit. I thought there were a lot of matches that could’ve gone either way for both teams and I think we were right there with Marquette.

“The season is going great. We’re improving each week and that’s all that matters to me. Just improving. As long as we’re improving and getting better, the dual scores don’t matter. What matters is what the kids get out of it.”

In the semifinals, Ishpeming was competitive with Marquette as the Hematites were tied 6-6 with the Redmen after the first three matches thanks to decision wins from the Hematites’ Preston Collette and Alaric Martin.

Then Marquette started to roll. Ishpeming cut the Redmen’s lead to 24-18 on a forfeit, but Marquette’s depth played a big role after that point as it won the next four matches by forfeit to create an insurmountable lead.

In the other semifinal, the Miners outlasted Westwood 43-34 and it was a tight one throughout. The Patriots got pins from John Bleau and Carter Guidebeck in the first two matches, but Negaunee slowly closed the gap on a major decision by Leo Helppi and a pin by Bryce Dunstan.

The Miners took the lead at 16-12 thanks to a forfeit and gradually built on that. Westwood cut its deficit to four at 22-18 on a pin by Alana Nuorala, but that’s the closest the Patriots could get.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal. net.

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