HARTLAND — Todd Cheney, normally as cheerful as a master of ceremonies, was anything but that Wednesday night, despite his Hartland wrestling team’s 34-27 victory over Brighton in a KLAA West Division-deciding match.
His syntax showed his frustration, with sentences short and clipped.
“As a whole, we didn’t wrestle very well,” he said. “It’s simple and easy. We’ve got to get into the room and work harder. For us to wrestle like that in a dual like this is not good, and we really, really need to get after it, mentally refocus and get everyone back on the same page, because tonight was not a championship effort.”
Cheney said this despite his team leading from start to finish. Brighton tied the match at 18 after Lee Grabowski scored six points with a pin at 140, but Hartland’s Reece Hughes got a decision at 145 to give Hartland the lead for good.
The deciding match was at 189, where Hartland’s Andrew Spisz held on for a 3-2 victory over Brighton’s Greyson Stevens despite needing a couple minutes to recover after an unintentional blow to the groin.
The win gave Hartland (27-2 overall, 5-0 KLAA West) a 34-24 lead with one match to go.
The victory put Hartland into next week’s KLAA championship quads, while Brighton (11-3, 4-1) will wrestle in the second-place quads. Both will be held at KLAA Central schools on Feb. 1.
“One match goes our way, and we win,” said Brighton’s Victor Grabowski, who won by decision at 130 pounds.
Brighton coach Tony Greathouse had told his wrestlers to be aggressive, and that strategy was seen in the first match between heavyweights Colby Ford of Brighton and David Dunville of Hartland.
Many times, heavyweight matches are defensive matches, each wrestler looking for a subtle weakness in the other. In this one, Dunville took an early lead, only to see Ford reverse things and put him on his back late in the period.
“You can’t let it get to you mentally when they get you down,” Dunville said. “OK, you got taken down, but you have to get up and go agin. You have to stand up, take a deep breath and go at it again.”
The second period was a different story, and Dunville wound up pinning Ford with 40 seconds left.
Dunville had replaced Ben Dumond at heavyweight, coming up with a pin for the second time this season. Cheney said his efforts the last few weeks, including a pin at the Michigan duals against a wrestler who was ranked No. 2 in the state at the time, were paying off.
“It was a huge step up for him, and having a backup guy who can step up and do that is a big deal,” Cheney said. “He’s been working hard in the room and good things are paying off for him. He’s a senior working hard and we’re thankful to have him.”
Greathouse was pleased with the performance of Ford in particular and the team in general.
“What we wanted the guys to do was to try to win,” he said. “Go after it. Make things happen. Even though Colby probably wishes he could have that (match) back, he got pinned going after it. We can live with that and move on.”
Hartland got out to an 18-3 lead with pins in three of the first four matches, then got a crucial pin by Joey Livingston at 160 pounds that gave Hartland a 31-21 advantage.
The match featured two teams ranked in the top 10 in Michigan (Hartland No. 3, Brighton No. 7), and the last two Division 1 state champions, with Hartland having won last year.
Greathouse was pleased with his young team’s performance, while Cheney was expecting much more.
“I don’t know if there’s a reason or an excuse for it,” he said. “We just didn’t perform. Simple and easy. That’s it. It’s as easy as it gets. We’ve got to do a better job as wrestlers and coaches if we want an opportunity to do anything later.”
