GAYLORD---Two Escanaba High School wrestlers and three from Marquette kept their state finals dreams alive by advancing out of the MHSAA Division Two individual district tournament on Saturday in Gaylord.
Escanaba's Eli Gardner picked up three wins (including one over teammate Cannon Arnt) to advance to the 132-pound championship match before losing to Grant Stahl of Mt. Pleasant High School on a pin in 1:05. His second place finish, though, earned him a spot in the MHSAA Individual Regionals next Saturday, also in Gaylord.
Escanaba's Cade Krueger also advanced to regionals with a third place finish in the 120-pound weight class. Krueger pinned his first opponent on Saturday, but got pinned in his semifinal match.
Krueger then battled for two victories in the consolation bracket, including an 11-5 win over Gaylord's Joey Cummings in the third place match.
Both Gardner and Krueger will need to place in the top four of their weight classes next weekend to earn a trip to the state finals at Ford Field next month.
Before that, the district champion Eskymos will wrestle as a team in the regional semifinals against the powerhouse Gaylord Blue Devils this Wednesday in Gaylord.
REDMEN WRESTLERS FIGHT ON---Marquette will have three wrestlers competing in the indvidual regionals next Saturday after one boy finished in third place and two others ended up fourth in their weight classes.
Redman heavyweight Dasan Smith pinned his first two oppoents in the district on Saturday, but he was pinned in his semifinal match. Smith managed to win his third place match on a pin over North Branch High School's Mason Knight in 2:59.
At 165 pounds, Marquette's Luke Mead won his first two matches on pins (one of them was against Escanaba's Noah Gagne) but Mead was pinned in his semifinal match. He managed to ge a win in his fourth match of the day, on a pin over Gaylord's Ethan Chandler in 2:51.
In his fifth match of the day, Mead lost to Logan Pung of North Branch on a 12-11 decision, so Mead finished in fourth place.
Still good enough to advance to the regionals.
And Marquette's 157-pounder, Brody Caster, won three matches on Saturday, but lost twice to Sault Ste. Marie's Cody Russo, both on pins. So, Russo gets third place and Caster takes fourth, and both will wrestle in the regionals next Saturday.
SAULT STE. MARIE REGIONAL QUALIFIERS---Calvin Aldrich (190 pounds, 4th place), William Ohman (138 pounds, 3rd place), and Russo (157 pounds, 3rd place)
