Individual districts pairs down the field

Goodrich’s Nick Fisher takes on Marysville at the Individual district at Brandon last Saturday. Photo by Chris Dungey ORTONVILLE — Isaac Jewell lived up to his name last Saturday for the Goodrich varsity team at Brandon individual wrestling district No. 10-2 by cutting through a thick field to take the 103 lb. title and qualify for Mt. Pleasant individual regional No. 5-2 this Saturday. This included victories over Lapeer West’s Jackson Carie in :27 and Clio’s Mason Smith 3-2 after drawing a first-round bye.

The only other wrestler the Martians will be sending on to compete as an individual is Nick Fisher, who slid into the third spot at 125 by parlaying a roundone bye into a default win over Flint Northwestern’s Jason Schaffer that led to a 5-2 defeat against Clio’s Kyle Hoblin. Down but not out, Fisher then rebounded by getting the better of Marysville’s Craig Connor, 3-1, and Owosso’s Tristen Nevadomski, 7-6.

Grand Blanc’s Christian O’Guinn wrestles at 160 lbs. Photo by Michael Selecky Nic Nicoloff, Tyler Sofian, Jacob Smith, Brendan Calverly and Connor Wood also competed for the Martians at 130, 135, 140 and 160, respectively, and went 2- 2 for the event. Goodrich sent Hannah Jewell and Carson Henrie into battle at 112, as well, but both efforts were extinguished by way of round-one defeats, a fate shared by Andrew Riley at 215, Ryan Perry at 171, Tyler Henrie at 130 and Kris Kouvillion at 119. Only the top four placers in each weight class move on to the next round of competition.

As for Brandon team district No. 139-2 on Feb. 8, the Martians found themselves getting eliminated by Lapeer West in the first round, which then went on to beat the host Blackhawks, 41-26, to take the championship. In other round one action Brandon beat Lapeer East, 59-18. GRAND BLANC

The Bobcats will send four wrestlers on to Davison individual regional No. 4-1 after choosing not to take the mat at Port Huron Northern team district No. 129-1 on Feb. 9.

“We made the decision to opt out of the team district competition last week to get our guys healthy and ready for the individual tournament,” said coach Craig Trombly.

At Davison individual district No. 8-1 last Saturday it was Grand Blanc’s Carson Whaley who finished second and upped his record to 40-6 on the year at 152 lbs. by beating Saginaw Heritage’s Michael Fee, 5-0, and Davison’s Tyler Wildmo, 8-3, before getting pinned in the finals by Bay City Central’s Davon Jackson in 3:17. Christian O’Guinn also finished second for the Bobcats at 160 by pinning Midland’s Tanner Diment in 2:47 and getting over on Carman- Ainsworth’s Jerron Thomas, 21-6, prior to ending up on the wrong end of a 6-3 decision against Davison’s Jordan Cook.

In third place for Grand Blanc Jacob Carley got past Port Huron Northern’s Jason Reid by fall in 3:19 prior to losing to Carman- Ainsworth’s Malik Dawson by major decision 11-1, only to come back and win his next three matches at 112 over Port Huron’s Chase Davis by pin in 2:30, Saginaw Heritage’s Luciano Lopez, 6-2, and Bay City Central’s Tyler Imker by major decision, 13-5. The Bobcats’ other third-place finisher on the day at 130 was Pellumb Kurtaga with victories against Alpena’s Andreas Hantiz, 4-3, Midland’s Dima Markey in :52 and Saginaw Heritage’s Jared Kiefer, 7-3, after starting the day with a loss in 5:59 to Hantiz.

At team districts, Port Huron Northern beat Port Huron, 77-5, prior to losing to Davison in the finals, 62-9.