Hartland in Div. 1 wrestling title match

/

By Brian Beaupied

The Livingston Post

MOUNT PLEASANT — It feels a little bit like déjà vu.

Hartland’s wrestling team reached the Division 1 state finals for the second year in a row and sixth time in 24 years under coach Todd Cheney, knocking off Oxford, 42-19, in Saturday morning’s semifinals at Central Michigan University.

The top-seeded Eagles (33-1) will face the No. 2 seed, Davison (24-4), in Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. state championship match. The Cardinals knocked off Detroit Catholic Central, 29-25, in a thriller in the other semifinal.

In January, Hartland defeated Division 27-26 in a team finals “dry run” at CMU’s McGuirk Arena. The venue is in its first year holding the team finals, which had been held for years at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.

In that match, the Eagles trailed 26-15 with two bouts to go. But pins by seniors Sage Castillo (152 pounds) and Logan Vish (160) snuck it out for the Eagles.

Should the afternoon’s finals again come down to the final match, just as it did a season ago in a 31-25 loss to  rival Brighton, Castillo said his team would be ready.

“Coming back from last year, finishing runner-up by just one match, it wasn’t (Garnet Potter’s) fault, it was a team effort,” he said, referencing the decisive final match. “We were one match short from that (title) and we don’t want to do that again. We’ve been working hard, pushing the pace every single day. We just have to show up at 3:30 p.m.

“I’m pretty excited. I’m pretty excited,” he added. “If we wrestled Davison, hopefully it comes down to me again, because I know I can do my job. I’ll go out there and do the best that I can, just like I did at the CMU dry duals. Hopefully my team shows up today.”

Davison’s last championship came in 2006, the last of five straight. Hartland appeared in four consecutive finals from 2004 to 2007, including three straight finals losses at the hands of the Cardinals.

In other words, one bugaboo remains after the Eagles removed another thorn from their collective sides in Oxford, which had beaten Hartland in each of the teams’ three postseason appearances.

Hartland raced off to a fast start on the strength of pins by Castillo, Vish, and a technical fall by Lucas Laforge at 171 through three matches. A decision by Andrew Spisz at 189 made it 20-0 before the Wildcats got on the board with a fall at 215.

“We wrestled well,” Cheney said. “Obviously, we know those guys really well.”

Senior Brandon Krol needed all of 24 seconds to stick his opponent at heavyweight, and the Eagles took the next four matches to extend their lead to 36-6 with five bouts to go.

At 125, Hayden Culver avoided being pinned to clinch yet another finals berth for the Eagles.

“For us to have another opportunity to wrestle in the team state finals, it’s a lot of fun,” Cheney said.

Other Eagles to win matches included Corey Cavanaugh (103), Kyle Kantola (112), Carter Hankins (119), Potter (130), and Kyle Cavanaugh (145).

DON’T MISS A BEAT

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

We don’t spam!

Sharing is caring!