Click the thumbnails to see interviews with Austin Solis and Drew Hansen. Photos courtesy of Christe Terrien.
KALAMAZOO---The Gladstone High School wrestling team is ready to go on Friday in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division Three state finals, being held at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo.
The Braves made the long trip on Thursday, ten hours on a bus through Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, to get to the southwest Michigan community.
Gladstone (17-2 in duals) will face Whitehall (30-3) at 4:30 Friday afternoon.
Gladstone 120-pounder Drew Hansen, who has won 44 of his 45 matches this season, is confident for both himself and the team.
“For Whitehall, we've just been practicing hard and doing our normal stuff,” Hansen said. “I think as a team, we match up really good against them, weight for weight. I think we can pull ahead pretty quickly. I feel like I should be able to pin my kid.”
Gladstone 143-pounder Austin Solis will be “bumping up” to 150 pounds on Friday.
“We've been having really hard practices,” Solis said. “As a team, we've just been preparing each other for every match, as much as possible. We know that every point counts in this dual, jusr like it did against Kingsley.”
Gladstone is at states because of a bizarre ending in the regional championship match, when Kingsley had a one-point win but was penalized a point when a wrestler threw off his headgear in celebration. The Braves ended up winning on a tiebreaker.
“We're here. We won,” Solis said. “It wasn't exactly how we planned on winning, but we didn't expect it to end that way.”
“I knew we were going to be here in the end, no matter how we won,” Hansen said. “We were the better team. We pulled it through.”
As for the long trip south, and then east?
“It wasn't too bad,” Solis said. “It was a fun trip, actually. The weather was a little shaky to begin with, but when we got past Milwaukee, it was pretty smooth sailing.”
“The trip was good,” Hansen said. “I got my own seat in the back of the bus. I was nice and comfortable. Took a little nap, and it flew by!”
The winner of the Gladstone-Whitehall match-up will face either Algonac or Portland in the state semifinals Saturday at noon.
