Click the thumbnails to see photos from the tournament, taken by Christe Terrien.
MARQUETTE---The Gladstone High School wrestling team won the Upper Peninsula championship on Saturday in Marquette, with three boys winning U.P. Championships and four others finishing as runners-up.
Iron Mountain was second on the team scoreboard, winning five individual titles.
The Braves repeated as U.P. champions with their depth, with 12 wrestlers making the top six for podium finishes on the afternoon.
Gladstone finished with 237 points, while Iron Mountain was second with 183 points. Escanaba took third with 133 points, edging Kingsford, which finished fourth with 130.5 points.
Negaunee was fifth (120), Sault Ste. Marie sixth (118), and Bark River-Harris seventh (108). Marquette (eighth, 86 points), St. Ignace (ninth, 78 points), Munising )tenth, 76 points), and Manistique (11th, 55.5 points) closed out the scoring.
Gladstone had three U.P. Champions.
At the 126-pound weight class, Drew Hansen cruised to pins just 18 and 46 seconds in his first two matches, then faced last year's Division Four state runner-up, Iron Mountain's Tyler Winch, in the final. Hansen scored a 4-0 win on points, and he is now 29-1 on the season.
At the 144-pound weight class, Austin Solis was also on cruise control, winning his first two matches on pins in 44 and 51 seconds, respectively. Then in the championship match, Solis pinned Escanaba's Adam Reimer in just 22 seconds. Solis, who wrestled for less than two full minutes in three matches, improved to 31-3 on the season.
At the 190-pound weight class, it was a re-match of this month's contentious match between Gladstone's Cole Potier and Bark River-Harris's Drew Allgeyer. Allgeyer, a North Central High School student who won a Division Four state championship last year, lost his temper after losing to Potier in the match earlier this month.
This U.P. Championship match was much more calm, with Potier winning it on a 12-2 major decision. Potier had easily pinned his first two opponents, so he now improves his record to 32-3 on the season.
Four other Braves wrestlers went for U.P. Championships but came up short.
In the 113-pound weight class, Eli Terrien, who won the U.P. Title last year, pinned his first two opponents and then had to wrestle Iron Mountain's Alexander Wilson in the final on Saturday. Terrien lost a hard-fought 7-4 decision to Wilson in that match.
At 120 pounds, it was an all-Delta County championship match, as Gladstone's Connor Britton squared off against Escanaba's Cade Krueger. Britton had pinned his opponents from Kingsford and Newberry, and Krueger pinned his Iron Mountain and Manistique opponents. Kueger and Britton battled the entire six minutes in the U.P. Final before Krueger captured Escanaba's only U.P. Title of the day on an 8-5 decision.
Krueger improved to 26-7 on the season. Britton is now 16-7.
Gladstone freshman Trevor Thorbahn picked up two pins in his 157-pound matches, but then had to face Bark River-Harris's Dillon Raab in the championship, Raab, a NCA senior who had pinned Thorbahn earlier this month, needed only 30 seconds to pin Thorbahn again on Saturday. Raab was Bark River-Harris's lone U.P. Champion.
Raab is now 31-2 on the season. Thorbahn, in his rookie campaign, is 28-10.
Gladstone 175-pounder Owen Mattonen pinned Westwood's Luke Mitchell in his first match, and then he posted a dramatic win in double overtime against Negaunee's Tom McCollum in the semifinals, on a 10-8 score.
That set Mattonen up against Kingsford's Josh Peterson in the championship match, and Mattonen battled until midway through the second period before Peterson got the pin at the 3:07 mark. Peterson, now 17-1 on the season, was one of two champions for the Flivvers in Saturday's event. Mattonen settled for U.P. Runner-up.
The other was 215-pounder Elizin Rouse, who defeated Bark River-Harris's Lucas Sischo on a pin with 37 seconds left on the clock to deliver a championship for Kingsford.
Iron Mountain's five U.P. Champions included a girl: Shayla Hruska, who won the 106-pound title by beating Gladstone's Aidan Spriks in the semifinals on a pin at 2:53, and then winning an 8-2 decision over St. Ignace's Dalton Champion in the championship.
She became the first girl ever to win an Upper Peninsula wrestling championship, and she was given the Terry Duval Most Valuable Wrestler award, named after the legendary former Escanaba Eskymos wretsling coach.
Mountaineer defending state champion Shawn Mcguire won a U.P. Championship with two pins and a major decision victory at 132 pounds. Mcguire won the championship match over a spirited Eli Gardner of Escanaba, 15-4. Mcguire is now 26-0 this season.
Another undefeated Mountaineer, Evan Haferkorn, won his 150-pound championship by pinning all three of his opponents. He also improved to 26-0 on the season with a pin over Negaunee's Brody Prusi in the final, doing so in 1:55.
Iron Mountain's Fulton Stroud, the younger brother of last-year's state champion Parker Stroud, won a U,P. Championship Saturday in the 165-pound weight class. He defeated Negaunee's Ryan Reno in the championship match, 7-0, and is now 28-6 on the season.
Negaunee had one U.P. Champion: heavyweight Brayden Dunstan. Dunstan pinned Marquette's Dasan Smith in the championship match with just 30 seconds left in the third period. His quarterfinal match was tight, beating Gwinn's Colton Berglund on a 3-1 decision. Dunstan, also an all-U.P. Football player, is now 25-4 this season.
Sault Ste. Marie also had a U.P. Champion: Will Ohman in the 138-pound weight class. He pinned Newberry's Hayden O'Neil in 4:40 to win the championship.
For Escanaba, Gardner and Reimer were runners-up, and heavyweight Tom Benoit also reached the podium, as he won his third place match over Sault Ste. Marie's Callen Campbell on a pin at 2:35. Eskymo Linnea Britton finished fifth at 113 pounds, Cody Crowe was fourth at 126, and Trent Turchin was fourth at 150, all reaching the podium.
Munising had several wrestlers finish on the podium, with the highest finisher being Andrew Cain, who took third in the 126-pound weight class. He had lost to Iron Mountain's Winch in the semifinals, but defeated Crowe on a pin at 3:22 in the third place match to move up the podium.
Munising's Reagan Bowerman, a defending U.P. Champion and one of the favorites in the 140-pound weight class, has a broken thumb and missed Saturday's U.P. Finals. He is hoping to return for the state tournament run, starting with team and individual districts, next month.
Bark River-Harris had five wrestlers reach the podium: Raab, who won the 157-pound title, Allgeyer, runner-up at 190, and Sischo, runner-up at 215. Also, Josh Riley finished third in the 138-pound weight class, and David Mosse was fifth at 150.
