Manchester's Tobias Starts Recent Run of 4-Time Individual Finals Champs
By
John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director emeritus
February 26, 2025
The MHSAA Wrestling Tournament began in 1948. In the first 52 years of the tournament only six grapplers had achieved the ultimate – winning four individual titles. And the first to achieve that – Mike Mills of Mt. Pleasant – didn’t do it until 1979. Before that, there had only been nine three-time champs.
Flip the page to 2000 and a run of four-peat masters has occurred, and heading into the 2025 MHSAA Individual Wrestling Finals this week, we celebrate here the 25th anniversary of the first of that group – Jeremiah Tobias of Manchester High School.
Tobias is the leader of a group of 30 wrestlers have captured four titles in their careers over the past 25 years. A career sweep has been claimed by at least one wrestler in each season since 2017, with 16 four-timers during that span. Two three-time champs – Jackson Blum of Lowell (Div. 2-132 pounds) and Sebastian Martinez of Riverview Gabriel Richard (Div. 4 at 175 pounds) — stand at the fore to join the club this year.
Tobias captured his fourth title in impressive style at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, pinning his four opponents in a stunningly-low combined time of 3:30 – an average of 52 seconds per match. Since then, only Derek Saari of Escanaba has spent less time in Finals combat with four pins at 2:58 (44.5 second average) to win the Upper Peninsula title at 119 pounds in 2007.
Over the last 25 years, 30 wrestlers on 32 occasions have pinned their four opponents en route to the title in the boys Finals – and since the girls division started in 2022, it’s happened nine times in those brackets. Achieving four-pin Finals titles twice were Zach Perrin of Corunna in 2005 and 2006 and Ira Jenkins of Whitehall in 2021 and 2022.
For Tobias, his championships came at 125, 130, 135 and 145 pounds. He finished his career with a 182-3 record, not losing a match after the District Final of his freshman year – a loss he avenged during the following weeks’ Regional and Final tournaments. He rang up a winning streak of 144 matches and did not have an opponent score a takedown on him over his last three seasons. Only a football injury his junior year, which caused him to miss 31 bouts, prevented him from compiling even more impressive numbers.
Following his final match to clinch the fourth title, a pin in 1:12 which brought the crowd at The Joe to a standing ovation, Tobias told The Detroit News, “I’m speechless. I knew this was the last match of my high school career and I wanted to make the most of it. This is the way I wanted to be remembered by.”
He went on to the University of Michigan and posted an 82-21 record in a reserve role from 2001-05 – pinning 57 of his opponents, which is still a school record. Seventeen of those pins came as a sophomore, another school record. He was honored three times with the Bill Shaw Award – recognizing the team’s top 11th man.
Tobias entered the college coaching ranks following graduation, which included 10 years at Alma College – five as its head coach. He is currently a fitness teacher at St. Mary’s School in Alma and remains active in youth wrestling circles.
FOX Sports Detroit featured Tobias during its coverage of the 2000 Individual Wrestling Finals, and we have video of that feature and his championship match with Jeremy Windsor of Fulton for your enjoyment. (His match follows the interview at 1:07.)
PHOTO Manchester's Jeremiah Tobias celebrates his fourth championship at the 2000 Individual Wrestling Finals.
Performance: Hartland's Sage Castillo
January 20, 2016
Sage Castillo
Hartland senior – Wrestling
Two bouts remained in Sunday’s matchup of top-ranked Hartland and No. 2 Davison at Central Michigan University’s McGuirk Arena in what could've been a possible preview of next month’s MHSAA Division 1 championship match. The Eagles trailed by 11 points, and Castillo faced the day’s pivotal moment – and seized it to key his team’s 27-26 win and earn this week’s Michigan National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Castillo, ranked No. 3 in Division 1 at 152 pounds by Michigan Grappler, earned a hard-fought pin over No. 6-ranked Kurt Schlack, setting up teammate Logan Vish to score the match-clinching pin in the final bout at 160. The team victory was the 650th of coach Todd Cheney’s career since taking over the program in 1991-92 and moved the Eagles to 17-1 after they’d lost their first match this season earlier in the morning to Detroit Catholic Central.
Castillo, 24-0 this winter, is a four-year starter for Hartland and holds a 167-35 career record. He was an MHSAA Individual Finals qualifier last season at 135 pounds and a key contributor as the Eagles finished runner-up as a team in Division 1, falling to Brighton 31-25 in the championship match. He also finished fifth at 125 pounds at the Individual Finals as a sophomore and qualified at 112 pounds as a freshman. He’s still deciding college plans, but holds a 3.3 grade-point average and is considering a career in the medical field.
Coach Todd Cheney said: “Sage is an extremely hard-working kid and a great leader. Sage had a 4-0 week recording three pins and a major decision, and he helped start our comeback pinning a ranked wrestler from Davison.”
Performance Point: “When my friend Reese (Hughes), right after he won, (I thought) we have a chance to win this. Our next wrestler … he ends up losing (at 145), so we’re down by 11, and then I’m like, ‘OK, we have to pin the next two kids or we lose.’ Schlack is a great wrestler; he’s strong, he’s agile. But I went out, and I knew I was not going to lose. I wrestled my heart out, and I ended up pinning him. I had so much going through my mind. When I got in my first shot, it was like, ‘Wow, that wasn’t really that bad. (But) if I’d gotten into a scramble with him, there was a chance he’d catch me. … I got him into a cross-face cradle, and it was just so tight. There was so much energy and strength going through me, there was no way he was going to break it.”
Comeback kids: Hartland opened Sunday with its first loss of the season, 33-16 to No. 3 Detroit Catholic Central. “We went in way overconfident. We thought we’d never lose. With that mentality, we didn’t take it too seriously, and that’s what cost us the match. We lost the first five or six matches right in a row and couldn’t bounce back from that. Taking that, and going into the Davison match, that fueled the fire. Our loss helped us bounce back from it and wrestle hard.”
Title dreams: In addition to finishing runner-up last season, Hartland also finished runner-up in Division 1 four straight seasons from 2004-07. “It would mean the world to me, being the first team to win a state title at Hartland. It would be the most amazing feeling in the world. To have Cheney hand me the trophy in the center of the mat at Central Michigan … to make my school proud and my family proud, I’ve dreamed about it numerous times. Cheney’s talked to me about it. He’s sort of talked about this year, the overview of it, talked about how tough of a season we have this year. He’s scheduled tough tournaments, not for us to lose, but to get ourselves better. If we do lose, it gives us room for improvement.”
Learning from a legend: “It’s been pretty awesome; I’m not going to lie. I love wrestling for Cheney. He’s a great coach, and he knows what he’s doing. Cheney’s taught me how to respect others in my match, in other matches, my family; he’s taught me a lot about respect over the last four years."
Next level and beyond: “I’m mostly leaning toward nursing (and) I want to wrestle. Just working with people, getting to know other people, helping out others. (Science) is what I excel in, mostly. It just interests me the most – figuring out how things work in the body, nature, and all of that stuff.”
– Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2015-16 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our Nation's freedom, or protecting lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2015-16 honorees
Jan. 13: Rob Zofchak, Dexter swimming & diving - Read
Jan. 6: Tyler Deming, Caro wrestling – Read
Dec. 15: Jordan Weber, East Jordan boys basketball – Read
Dec. 8: Kaitlyn Geers, Kent City girls basketball – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Hartland's Sage Castillo attempts to finish a pin as the official leans in to make the call. (Middle) Castillo celebrates his victory during Sunday's match against Davison. (Top photo by Danna Castillo; bottom photo courtesy of Todd Cheney.)