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Up to The Challenge

MARQUETTE – Nearly two dozen teams from all around the state – 11 from the Upper Peninsula and 12 from the Lower Peninsula – descended on Marquette Senior High School Saturday for the Marquette Challenge high school wrestling meet.

Two wrestlers from the area shined on the mats at what is also called The Challenge.

Marquette’s Beau Caster and Munising’s Hunter Sadler both finished third in their respective weight classes, Caster at 152 pounds and Sadler at 189.

Caster pinned Gaylord’s Cade Foster to make it to the winner’s bracket semifinals before losing 10-7 to Joel Rees of Sparta. He bounced back in the third-place match, defeating Comstock Park’s Austin VandenToorn 8-3.

“I think I wrestled pretty well,” Caster said. “It’s always hard not winning, but getting third in a tournament like this is pretty good.”

Marquette head coach Tony Gentz had a lot of praise for Caster and said that his junior grappler has put in a lot of time trying to get better.

“Beau wrestled a 10-7 match against the No. 1 kid in the state,” Gentz said. “That kid (Rees) was a three-time Challenge champion and Beau wrestled his tail off that match. He ended up on the short end of the stick, but he wrestled a great match.

“His overall mat awareness and technique has improved this year. We’ve had a lot of alumni that have been wrestling with him and trying to get him better. If he wrestles like he did today, I think he has a great shot to place at (the) state (tournament).”

When looking at The Challenge as a whole, Gentz said that the large number of talented schools will help his team grow.

“We are inexperienced,” he said. “I’ve got a few injuries right now and a couple of kids didn’t come out this year. We’re low on numbers in the lower weights and team-wise we’re just trying to get better as a whole.

“It’s good to have a high amount of high-quality teams up here because the guys get to absorb and learn a lot from the good matches. By getting to see this kind of competition early, it will help us get better as the year goes along.”

Sadler blazed a strong trail to the semifinals as he pinned Negaunee’s Sam Collins and earned a major decision (11-0) over Gwinn’s Kevin Roberts. After falling to Mason’s Brad Wilton in his winner’s bracket semifinals, he shut out Roscommon’s Logan Duvall 7-0 to win third place. The highest he had finished at the Challenge in the past was fourth.

“I’m having a pretty good day,” he said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a little better from last year. The big part of coming here is getting good competition. We don’t ever see these guys, so it’s nice to see them early on.”

Sadler finished sixth at the state tournament last year at the Palace of Auburn Hills and is hoping to improve his position there as well.

“I didn’t really expect to place last year,” he said. “It was a lot of hard work to get there and when I got there, I was at the peak of my season, which helped out a lot. I was wrestling better than I had all year.

“I think I can get back there. The thing is that I got sixth, but I made it to the semifinals. That’s what I’m hoping to get to again. Make it to the semifinals and get into the top four.”

Munising head coach Bob Miles thinks that Sadler performed well at The Challenge and thinks he’s an all-around talented wrestler.

“He had a pretty good day. That Mason kid was really tough, but otherwise, he stuck with a game plan and what he was good at. His drive and his heart is what makes him a good wrestler. He really goes after it. He’s been doing it since he was a little kid with Marquette youth wrestling.

Sadler likes to use a “chicken wing” move to defeat his opponents, saying that he’s finished five of his seven or eight matches this season with that particular technique.

“He’s used that a lot this year,” Miles chuckled. “We’ve seen a lot of chicken wings out of him, but he’s also good at tilts and offense. He’s good at a lot of stuff.”

When asked if he thinks Sadler has a chance to place again in Auburn Hills, Miles said yes.

“I think he has a really good chance to place,” he said. “A lot of the kids he saw last year in the postseason all graduated, so that bodes well for him.”

As far as the Mustangs go as a whole, Miles says that they have few numbers than last season but are experienced.

“I’m feeling really good right now,” he said. “We have a smaller team this year. I think we’ve only got 10 or 11 kids. Most of them have experience, though.

“Every year we want to win our district. That’s the foremost thing. After that, we just want to see how far we can go.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.

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