Red Arrows Find Target Again with Record Win
March 14, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Lowell wrestling has had more to celebrate than most teams over the last six winters.
But something a little extra has accompanied the buzz after the Red Arrows won their record sixth-straight MHSAA Finals team championship Feb. 23 at Wings Events Center.
The Division 2 back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back champion edged Goodrich 29-23 to surpass Davison 2002-06 and Hudson 2009-13 for the longest championship streak since the team match format was added to the Finals lineup in 1988.
People ask for the secret. Lowell coach R.J. Boudro isn’t sure where to start.
“It’s not one thing; it’s so many things,” Boudro said. “It’s hard work across all levels – coaching staff, obviously the wrestlers, and parents and community and administration, and our youth wrestling program is extremely strong.
“When it’s all said and done, the Lowell wrestling program is something we’re all willing to give ourselves too. We’re all better because of the Lowell wrestling program, so it’s a win-win. Whether it’s a fundraiser, reading to young kids, there are so many things people don’t see. It’s pretty cool to be a part of, and there are a lot of people willing to sacrifice to make it successful.”
Lowell is the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for February. The Red Arrows finished 22-3, their only team losses this season to eventual Division 1 champion Detroit Catholic Central, Division 1 runner-up Brighton and semifinalist Davison. Lowell followed up the team title with two champions and five more placers the first weekend of March at the Individual Finals at Ford Field.
The team title streak began in 2014 under then-coach Dave Dean, when the Red Arrows ended St. Johns’ four-season hold on Division 2 with a one-point win in the Final. Boudro was an assistant to Dean and took over the program the next season.
The toughest part of continuing such a run is probably the expectation that it’s going to continue. The pressure stacks up – Boudro noticed his team wrestling a little tight at the end of this regular season. But he and his staff worked to get the Red Arrows focusing again on the postseason tournaments being the same as those the team wrestles during the regular season – which is helped because Lowell stacks its schedule with playoff-caliber competition to prepare for February and March.
The season ended with junior Austin Boone winning the individual title at 152 pounds – he’ll attempt next year to become the 27th in MHSAA history to win four championships – and senior Avry Mutchler claiming the title at 140. Senior Jeff Leach (fourth at 135), junior James Fotis (fifth at 145), sophomore Doak Dean (seventh at 145), sophomore Jacob Lee (fifth at 160), junior Tyler Delooff (fifth at 285) and freshman Ramsy Mutschler (fourth at 103) also placed among the top eight at their weights. Avry Mutschler went over 150 career wins during the season, and Leach won his 100th. Leach also clinched this season’s championship in his match against Goodrich, after doing the same against Warren Woods-Tower in the 2016 Final.
Additionally, the Red Arrows earned first-team academic all-state honors for the 13th year in a row, this time with a team GPA of 3.844.
Lowell had scheduled to celebrate Wednesday with its postseason banquet, before jumping back into planning for next season and the pursuits that will come with it.
“We don’t do the same things every year. We’re always trying to get better,” Boudro said. “We try to push the envelope so we’re not staying stagnate.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
January: Farmington United gymnastics – Read
December: Warren Woods-Tower wrestling – Read
November: Rochester Adams girls swimming & diving – Read
October: Leland boys soccer – Read
September: Pickford football – Read
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Lowell wrestlers congratulate Jeff Leach after he won the last and clinching match of the Division 2 Final last month against Goodrich. (Middle) The Red Arrows’ Austin Boone wrestles Melvindale’s Devin Spears for the Division 2 title at 152 pounds. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Latest Championship Chapter of DCC/Davison Goes Shamrocks' Way
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 22, 2025
KALAMAZOO – Connor Bercume’s Detroit Catholic Central wrestling career came full circle Saturday.
Three years ago, Bercume lost the opening match of the Division 1 Final against Davison in a dual meet the Shamrocks lost by eight.
In his final match at Wings Events Center, however, the senior closed his team wrestling career by winning the clinching match in Catholic Central’s 50-18 victory against Davison.
“That’s a pretty cool feeling,” Bercume said. “I kind of started my career here at the team state championships, it was the first match my freshman year. I lost and we ended up losing that dual. So, that was definitely tough on me. This year, it’s pretty awesome to clinch it up. It still hasn’t really sunk in that this was actually my last time representing CC as a team. But, yeah, it feels good.”
Bercume and the Shamrocks have now won three straight Division 1 Finals titles, seven of the past nine and 11 since 2010, all under coach Mitch Hancock. In three of the five years the Shamrocks didn’t win the title, they were a finalist.
“It doesn’t,” Hancock said when asked if the feeling of winning ever changes. “You’d think it would. You’re so in the process throughout the year of prepping and prepping and prepping, but when it finally comes to fruition, you look at their faces and get the chance to embrace the coaches who have spent so much time and energy with these guys – it doesn’t (change). It’s a special moment. We do the team state tournament right here in Michigan, it means something. Other states, not so much; it’s the individual tournament. But look around. So many communities that are invested in wrestling – it’s special.”
Saturday was the seventh time Davison and CC had met in the Final since 2013, and the first time the Shamrocks had come out on top in that scenario since 2020.
The rivalry added another layer this season, as Hancock’s former Central Michigan University teammate Jason Mester took over the Davison program.
“Jason’s one of my closest friends. I talk to him every day,” Hancock said. “It’s an honor (to compete against him in the Final). It’s his first year at the helm, you can see the progress they made throughout the year. There’s no bigger competitor than Jason Mester, so I know we’re going to see his butt next year. … The Davison/CC rivalry is the best one in the state of Michigan, and you felt that tonight. Kudos to that coaching staff, Coach Mester, they’re going to be around for a long time with him at the helm. I can’t say enough about that team. But our guys stepped up tonight, and that starts with our freshman Braxton Roche at (157). What a remarkable display of talent.”
Roche’s match was one of several between ranked wrestlers in the dual, as he defeated Davison’s Julius Pacheco, who is ranked No. 5 at 150 and bumped up to face the sixth-ranked Roche. The back-and-forth affair ended with an 8-4 decision in favor of Roche, giving the Shamrocks a 26-12 lead with the heart of their lineup still to go.
While Kyle Jelinek would get a pin for Davison in the following match at 165, Catholic Central closed out the dual with five straight wins.
“I thought our guys competed,” Mester said. “The score really doesn’t tell the tale of how well our guys competed today or yesterday or all year, really. Our guys went out there and fought hard. We got beat in a number of positions where the swing matches could have gone either way, and it went their way today. My hat’s off to them – they wrestled a great dual and wrestled a great season.”
Davison (19-4) did get some big pins, as Jelinek was joined by Steve Vaughn (113) and Calvin Martz (138). But those were their only victories on the night.
“We had two seniors who got pinned tonight, and that typically doesn’t happen in our lineup,” Hancock said. “But I looked at both those young men and I said, ‘This team will pick you up.’ And those guys did, so I’m really proud of the other guys who stepped up and found a way to pick those two seniors up.”
Ryan Totten (120), Wyatt Lees (126), Benny Eziuka (285) and Richard Mogle (106) all won by fall for Catholic Central (27-5), while Bercume won by technical fall at 215.
Mack Moskovic (132), Alexander Buskirk (150) and Caden Krueger (175) won major decisions, while Grayson Fuchs (144) and Lee Krueger (190) joined Roche with wins by decision.
“We took some tough Ls (earlier in the season) to Lowell, St. Ed’s (Ohio), all the nationally-ranked teams that we wrestled,” Eziuka said. “That just prepared us for this moment to come out and put on a performance like this.”
Click for this weekend’s Division 1 meet summaries.
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Catholic Central's Connor Bercume (blue) wrestles Davison's Brandon Glisson at 215 pounds during Saturday's Division 1 Final. (Middle) The Shamrocks' Benny Eziuka has his hand raised in victory after his match at 285. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)