By Journal Sports Staff

MARQUETTE — Eleven area wrestlers have qualified for the MHSAA individual wrestling tournament state finals to be held at Ford Field in Detroit starting Friday, March 2.

One of those wrestlers — junior Nathan Brewer of Westwood — will go there as a regional champion.

The rest finished second, third or fourth as the top four from each of four regionals over the state’s four divisions also qualify for a shot at a state title. That means nearly 900 athletes will converge on downtown Detroit in less than two weeks.

A total of 30 area wrestlers qualified and 29 took part in two regionals held in the northern Lower Peninsula on Saturday.

Marquette participated in Division 2 at Gaylord, while Westwood, Ishpeming, Munising, Gwinn and Newberry were in Division 4 at Charlevoix.

But Brewer was the only area wrestler to emerge a champion at 112 pounds in Charlevoix.

He received a bye in his first-round match, then defeated Coleton Fredrickson of Mancelona 11-10 before pinning Zach Ouillette of Oscoda at 1:33 in the championship match.

Brewer will receive preferential seeding at the finals, likely to go up against a fourth-place finisher from another regional in Detroit.

Two of his teammates also qualified for states of the 11 that made it to regionals, by far the most regional entries of any area school.

Westwood’s Joe Derocha finished runner-up at 103, pinning Darren Gostlin of Evart at 2:55 and Ethan Winegardner of Roscommon at 4:44 before losing in the finals to Caleeb Nolf of Leroy-Pine River 4-2.

The Patriots’ Sam Gilles was third at 189, beating Skylar Miller of Lake City 10-1, then getting pinned by TJ Rizor of Pine River at 5:18 and finally defeating Tyler Spencer of Rudyard 5-3 and Seth DeMoines of Beaverton 4-3 in the third-place match.

At Gaylord, Marquette’s four regional qualifiers produced a state finalist.

That was 103-pounder Joe Lagrou, who finished third. He pinned Dakota Sandzick of Imlay City at 1:12, was pinned by Corbin Hallberg of Ortonville-Brandon at 4:01, defeated Jason Judd of Flint Kearsley, then met up with Sandzick again in the third-place match, where he again won by pin at 3:12.

Three of four regional wrestlers from Newberry also made states.

Nathan Magnusson at 135 finished second, pinning Kolby Tyler of Roscommon at 0:30 and Zachary Stockman of Lake City at 5:38 before being pinned in the title match by Matthew Grant of Onaway at 3:08.

Teammate Cameron Symonds at 152 was also a runner-up, defeating Ryder Christensen of Manton 8-6 and Jacob Cassiday of Beaverton 3-2 before being pinned in the championship tilt to Anthony Johnson of Oscoda at 4:59.

The Indians’ Alex Henry was third at 160 as he beat Brian Ouillette of Oscoda 7-4, lost to Andy Dault of Oscoda 6-2, then defeated Dakota Gagnon of Whittemore-Prescott 9-6, and in the third-place match, blanked Trevor Matson of St. Ignace 15-0.

Ishpeming had two of four regional qualifiers advance to Detroit, both coming in fourth at Charlevoix.

Alaric Martin at 171 defeated Will Ciske of Mio-AuSable 7-5, was pinned by Ridge Schutte of W-P at 1:20, defeated Jackson Vidlund of Westwood 12-5 and was pinned by Clay Myers in the third-place match at 2:10.

The Hematites’ Andre Walsh at 215 was pinned by Eric Cassiday of Beaverton at 1:09, defeated Devin Racicot of Bark River-Harris by disqualification, decisioned Max Thomas of Roscommon 12-9, and lost to Thomas Miller of Lake City 15-0 in the third-place match.

Gwinn’s lone regional qualifier, Daniel Johnson at 285, finished fourth to make the state finals.

Johnson pinned Austin Potter of Lake City at 1:35, lost to Bryan McCurry of Pine River 3-0, pinned Josh Bartle of Westwood at 2:53 and was pinned by Jake Renfer of Manton at 2:21 in the third-place match.

Munising had one of its five regional qualifiers make it to Detroit.

That was 140-pounder Nick Miles, who finished fourth. He decisioned Seth Sparks of Manton 9-4, was pinned by Andy Park of Pine River at 3:30, defeated Clayton Henry of Rogers City 7-4 and in a rematch in the third-place match, lost to Sparks 5-4.

Several other area wrestlers won a match but were eliminated in the “blood” match, the match that would qualify a wrestler for the top four and a state finals berth.

They included Marquette’s Cooper Holferty at 171, Westwood’s Jackson Vidlund at 171 and Josh Bartle at 285, Munising’s Christian Cole at 160 and Manistique’s James Schroeder at 119.

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