Marquette’s Collin Fure, left, and Escanaba’s Justin Mathieson wrestle during the championship semifinals in the 119-pound division Saturday afternoon at the Upper Peninsula Championships held at Marquette Senior High School. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

By RYAN SPITZA

Journal Sports Writer

MARQUETTE — Seventeen varsity wrestling teams from across the Upper Peninsula descended upon Marquette Senior High School on Saturday for the 51st annual U.P. Championships wrestling meet.

The final 28 athletes wrestling for a championship in 14 weight classes got to battle under the lights, music and glamour of the MSHS gym.

Escanaba won the team title with 228 points to take home the Duval Trophy. Gladstone came in second with 204, followed by Marquette with 200 and Westwood 136 1/2.

Eskymos head coach Jeffrey Wright said winning the meet is one of his team’s main goals.

“I’m very happy for the kids,” he said. “We’ve been reaching all year to get better and better and this was our first goal to win this tournament. We haven’t had the Duval Trophy back in Escanaba in a couple of years, so this feels good.”

Among other area schools, Munising was sixth with 80 points, Newberry ninth with 69, Ishpeming 10th with 61, Negaunee tied for 14th with 38, Gwinn 16th with 31 and Manistique 17th with 4.

MSHS head coach Tony Gentz said his team put up a good performance.

“I’m happy and I think we wrestled pretty darn good today,” he said. “It’s just another step to our main goals at the end of the year.”

Saturday night’s first championship match at 140 pounds featured two sophomores, Gladstone’s Cole Hansen (27-2) and Escanaba’s Hunter Larson (17-2), the latter ranked fourth in the state. Larson decisioned Hansen 1-0 despite Hansen nearly pinning Larson in the final seconds.

At 145 was Marquette senior Harley Huddle (16-8) and Iron Mountain freshman John Carrion (19-3). Huddle pinned Carrion with 1:09 remaining in the third round.

Huddle said it was a challenge against a high-quality opponent and hopes he can continue having success.

“It was a battle out there,” he said. “It was one of my big goals this year to win U.P.’s, but I really want to place at the top of the state as we go on.”

Gentz said he’s happy for Huddle.

“I’m very excited for him,” the coach said. “He wrestled hard for the full match and never quit until he got the pin. That was good, hard-nosed wrestling.”

Another finals highlight was Westwood junior Sam Gillies (28-2) pinning Munising senior Darren Castello (35-3) at 3:11 at 189.

Gillies said it has been his dream to be a U.P. champion.

“It feels great,” he said. “I’ve been wanting this ever since I started wrestling in third grade, especially after last year it was my first time placing. This is every kid’s dream up here.”

Head coach Dan Carlson said the Patriots’ fourth-place finish was a strong one.

“We had a good day,” he said. “I’m really proud of the kids and they wrestled hard. We had a few guys come through and score a lot of points for us. Our wrestlers were on fire today.”

Marquette goes to Gaylord on Friday and Saturday to compete at the Northern Michigan Championships.

Westwood hosts a triangular Thursday before joining Gwinn and Ishpeming at the Manistique Super Dual on Saturday.

Negaunee goes to Iron Mountain on Tuesday before heading to Manistique for the weekend.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.