MARQUETTE — Marquette finished in fourth place at the Upper Peninsula Championships high school wrestling meet on Saturday that featured all 18 U.P. schools with a varsity wrestling program.

Hosted by the Sentinels, MSHS had seven wrestlers place in the event as Marquette finished with 132.5 points. Gladstone won with 224.5 points, with Escanaba runner-up with 147 and third-place Sault Ste. Marie having 139.5 as fifth-place Kingsford totaled 120.5.

Among other area teams, Negaunee was sixth with 109.5 points, Westwood eighth with 85, Manistique 12th with 62.5, Gwinn 14th with 53.5, Munising 16th with 43.5 and Newberry 18th with 34.

“Overall, I felt the team wrestled great,” Sentinels head coach Brandon Van Schyndel said about his team in an email detailing the result. “We had many matches in which we scored bonus points via pins and tech(nical) falls. It was also very encouraging seeing the Sentinel wrestlers close the gap on opponents they lost to (earlier) in the (season).”

Marquette juniors Levi Ellis at 106 pounds and Harland Dombrowski at 157 each made finals before finishing as runners-up, Ellis losing in his final to Praxton Labonte of North Central and Dombrowski losing to Gavin Comero of Westwood.

The Sentinels’ Trent Sadler finished third, Conner D’Ambrosio fourth, Antanie Villarello and John Rector each in fifth, and Ty Sadler sixth.

In addition to Comero winning his championship at 157, Patriots’ teammate Caleb Christensen was runner-up at 126.

Three other area wrestlers also won titles, Negaunee’s Evan Asikainen at 120, Gwinn’s Evan Stachewicz at 132 and Manistique’s Landon Weber at 126.

Another pair were runners-up — Negaunee’s Devin Jurmu at 150 and Manistique’s Grayden Holt at 132.

“We’re heading into a week without a competition until (this) weekend, so it’ll give the team time to heal and rest up and continue working on the little things to be prepared for the postseason coming up,” Van Schyndel said about his Marquette squad.

He noted that his team will travel to the Northern Michigan Championships set for Gaylord, with the varsity and JV girls competing in a separate meet Friday with the varsity MSHS team taking to the mats on Saturday. Negaunee, Gwinn and Munising also have this meet listed on their schedules.

Also this week, Negaunee will be at Menominee tonight.

Story contents based on email received from Marquette head coach Brandon Van Schyndel. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.