MARQUETTE — It looks like area schools are sending three wrestlers to the state girls individual finals at Ford Field in Detroit this weekend.

They will join seven area boys competing in the “open” individual championships going on at the same time on the indoor football field of the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

One of the girls can claim the distinction of qualifying for every girls wrestling final ever sponsored by the MHSAA, since the state high school sanctioning body took over this area of wrestling just last year.

For three years before that, the Michigan Wrestling Association sponsored a Girls Wrestling Finals with the blessing of the MHSAA.

The repeat finalist is junior Keira Wilson of Ishpeming, who last year qualified along with her brother, then-senior Jaegar Wilson in the open division.

He’s now graduated so sister Keira continues to carry the family torch.

Competing in the 100-pound division — the lightest of 14 girls divisions — Keira Wilson finished in the fourth and final state finals-qualifying position at her all-division regional held in Cadillac on Feb. 19.

Girls started with the regionals, since participation numbers don’t yet warrant a district level of competition like it does in the open class.

Most of the Upper Peninsula and what looks like all of the area girls competing were at the Cadillac regional, one of four with others held in Grayling, Hartland and Birmingham.

Information was found at the MHSAA website, www.mhsaa.com, though some school names were hard or impossible to decipher with four-letter abbreviations used for school names on most of the brackets.

The top four at each regional qualified for the state finals, making for brackets similar to the open class where there are 16 finalists at a particular weight.

Wilson compiled a 3-2 record in Cadillac, winning with two pins and a decision and losing by a pin and a decision.

She went up against two other girls who also qualified for the finals that accounted for both her losses.

Wilson was pinned by Madison Nieuwenhuis of Plainwell at 1:25 in the winner’s bracket semifinal as Nieuwenhuis went on to win the regional, and she lost 14-7 to Mackenzie Burger of Mount Pleasant in the third-place match.

Also making the finals were two Gwinn sophomore wrestlers.

Shawna Sundholm finished runner-up at 155 in Cadillac, compiling a 2-1 record in her contested matches and winning by a pin each time and losing in the championship match by decision.

Two of her opponents also qualified for the states — she pinned Shylah Twyman of Mattawan in the winner’s bracket semifinal in 1:35 as Twyman went on to finish fourth, and she lost to Hailee Budrick of Rockford 12-6 in the championship match.

Modeltowners teammate Kaila Sylvester finished third at 105 in Cadillac, compiling a 3-1 record. She had a winning pin and losing pin in the winner’s bracket, then won her two matches in the consolation bracket by pin and decision.

She actually defeated the same competitor twice as that wrestler — Sadie Cavendish of Lakeview — still qualified for the state finals in fourth place.

Sylvester pinned Cavendish in their first contested match at 4:25, then they squared off again in the third-place match, where Sylvester again prevailed 9-2.

The Gwinn athlete’s loss was to regional runner-up Ava Juhas of Ovid-Elsie by pin at 3:23.

Two other area wrestlers’ names were also found in the Cadillac regional listings.

Another Gwinn sophomore, Skylar Spencer, compiled a 1-2 record at 155 as both her losses were to eventual state finalists.

And Newberry freshman Bianca Briggs went 2-2 at 115 and missed state finals qualification by one win. Like Spencer, both her losses came at the hands of state finalists.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.