By Journal Sports Staff

MARQUETTE — In a race for regional qualifiers, Westwood won the battle among eight area teams at several high school individual wrestling district tournaments on Saturday.

But the Patriots had to share district champion honors with Munising.

In all, eight schools qualified 39 wrestlers for Saturday’s regionals, with 10 of them district champions.

Westwood qualified 10 wrestlers by virtue of top-four finishes at the MHSAA Division 4 district held in Munising.

That included a trio of district champions — freshman Joe Derocha at 103 pounds, senior Cedric Nora at 130 and sophomore Sam Gilles at 215.

“It was a great day for Westwood wrestling,” Patriots coach Dan Carlson said. “We filled (all) 13 weight classes and had 10 qualify. It’s been a year of hard work and dedication and it’s paying off for these young men.”

The district host Mustangs also had three district champs while qualifying eight of their wrestlers for Saturday’s regionals, to be held in Rogers City against wrestlers from the Oscoda district.

Munising’s champions were senior Zach McGowan at 119, junior Nick Miles at 125 and junior Christian Cole at 152.

All eight area schools that took part in district competition qualified at least one wrestler for regionals.

Also in Division 4 at Munising, Newberry qualified six wrestlers, including champion Cameron Sanders at 140.

Gwinn had five qualifiers, with two champs — senior Kevin Roberts at 189 and senior Ryan Johnson at 285.

Manistique advanced four to regionals, including a district champ, senior Tanner Gonzalez at 160.

Ishpeming placed three into the regionals, all third-place finishers Saturday in Munising.

Two other area schools competed in other divisions.

Negaunee was at the Division 3 district at Grayling and placed two wrestlers into Saturday’s regional in Charlevoix against wrestlers from the Farwell district.

And Marquette got one wrestler out of the Division 2 district at Gaylord to advance to the Marysville regional that includes the Goodrich district.

Every wrestler that won a district title had to go undefeated on Saturday, but depending on the number of wrestlers entered, seeding and the timing of their wins and losses, some had tougher roads to taste success.

With a look at the TrackWrestling.com website, there were a number of area wrestlers who won three competition matches Saturday.

They include Sam Collins and Michael Pizziola of Negaunee; Gilles of Westwood; Miles, Cole and Darren Castello of Munising; Tom Clark of Newberry; Daniel Johnson of Gwinn; Ryan Kemp of Ishpeming; and Tony Williams of Manistique.

Here are the regional qualifiers from the area, listed by school, with weight class, year in school, competition record and place:

DIVISION 2 at Gaylord

Marquette — 160, Beau Caster (12), 2-1, 2nd

DIVISION 3 at Grayling

Negaunee — 171, Sam Collins (12), 3-2, 4th; 285, Michael Pizziola (12), 3-1, 3rd

DIVISION 4 at Munising

Gwinn — 103, Ethan Parsons (9), 1-1, 2nd; 189, Kevin Roberts (12), 2-0, 1st; 215, Daniel Johnson (11), 3-1, 3rd; 285, Ryan Johnson (12), 2-0, 1st; 285, Rhyan Herman (12), 1-2, 4th

Ishpeming — 103, Christian Carello (9), 2-1, 3rd; 140, Daren Giuchin (12), 1-1, 3rd; 160, Ryan Kemp (11), 3-1, 3rd

Manistique — 112, Tony Williams (9), 3-1, 3rd; 140, Louie Berry (12), 1-1, 2nd; 145, Brendan Slater (9), 0-2, 4th; 160, Tanner Gonzalez (12), 2-0, 1st

Munising — 119, Zach McGowan (12), 2-0, 1st; 125, Nick Miles (11), 3-0, 1st; 145, Trevor Johnson (10), 1-1, 2nd; 152, Christian Cole (11), 3-0, 1st; 171, Andrew Miles (12), 2-1, 2nd; 189, Darren Castello (11), 3-1, 3rd; 215, Colin Murdock (12), 2-1, 2nd; 285, Alex Johnson (12), 1-1, 2nd

Newberry — 125, Nathan Magnuson (11), 2-1, 2nd; 130, Lance Bowler (9), 1-1, 2nd; 140, Cameron Symonds (11), 2-0, 1st; 152, Tom Clark (unavailable), 3-2, 4th; 160, Alex Henry (11), 2-1, 2nd; 171, Adam Hildebrant (12), 2-1, 3rd

Westwood — 103, Joe Derocha (9), 2-0, 1st; 112, Wyatt Carlson (9), 1-1, 2nd; 119, Tyler Lindholm (9), 1-2, 4th; 130, Cedric Nora (12), 2-0, 1st; 135, Wyatt Makosky (12), 1-1, 2nd; 140, Carter Guidebeck (9), 0-2, 4th; 160, Alaric Martin (9), 2-2, 4th; 171, Jackson Vidlund (9), 2-2, 4th; 215, Sam Gilles (10), 3-0, 1st; 285, Josh Bartle (11), 2-1, 3rd

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