Shamrocks Make it 10 with D1 Repeat
February 23, 2013
By Greg Tunnicliff
Special for Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – Rematches are always fun.
But they don’t get any better than when they are between the top two teams, and in the MHSAA Finals.
Detroit Catholic Central, ranked No. 1, and Davison, ranked No. 2, met for the second time this winter in Saturday’s Division 1 championship match at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.
The highly-anticipated rematch lived up to its billing, with the Shamrocks pulling out a thrilling 29-26 victory when junior Evan Toth earned a pin at 125 pounds with 36 seconds left in the third period.
Toth trailed 9-2 before he successfully put a headlock on Davison junior Derek Humphrey, turned him over, and recorded the six-point victory to send the Shamrocks’ bench and many of the capacity crowd of 3,618 into a frenzy.
Coincidentally, Toth lost to a wrestler from Oxford in the last match of the 2011 state finals. The Wildcats beat the Shamrocks 26-25.
“I’ve been in that situation before,” Toth said. “I knew we needed more than three points, and I was looking for something big the whole match. I knew what I had to do. You have to wrestle the whole six minutes. (Winning the championship) is the highest high you can have.”
It is DCC’s second straight MHSAA title and 10th overall. The Shamrocks ended this winter 25-3.
“I’m at a loss for words,” DCC coach Mitch Hancock said. “(Toth) never gave up. When you’re a Shamrock you believe to the end, and he did.”
While the Shamrocks were overjoyed Saturday, Davison’s contingent was stunned. The Cardinals led for most of the match and appeared to be headed for their first MHSAA title since 2006 when they took a 26-23 lead on 3-1 decision by Lincoln Olson at 119 pounds.
Humphrey got off to fast start at 125 and controlled the majority of the match, leading 4-1 after the first period and 9-2 after the second.
Davison ended this season 14-5.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Davison coach Roy Hall said. “That kid (Toth) found his position. He had one opportunity to hit a home run.”
In a star-studded Division 1 lineup that featured eight teams that had won a combined 34 team championships, it was no surprise that Davison and DCC faced each other in the Final.
Entering this weekend’s final round of the state tournament, the Cardinals and the Shamrocks boasted a combined 17 MHSAA titles and three runner-up finishes. Both teams featured a combined 21 ranked wrestlers.
DCC and Davison were the top two seeded teams, with Catholic Central at No. 1 and Davison No. 2. Both squads more than lived up to their lofty billings by demolishing their quarterfinal and semifinal opponents.
Davison defeated Holt, 50-12, in Friday’s Quarterfinals before polishing off third-seeded Hartland, 44-15, in Saturday’s Semifinals. The Shamrocks beat eighth-seeded Grandville, 62-7, before downing fourth-seeded Rochester, 48-13.
Davison started out Saturday’s championship rematch in much better fashion than its first encounter with Catholic Central, a 44-23 setback on Dec. 14.
Saturday’s match began at 130 pounds and Davison captured the first five weights to take an 18-3 lead. DCC was able to get back into match, primarily, because of the performances of its heavyweights.
The Shamrocks captured four straight weights from 171-285, recording back-to-back major decisions at 171 and 189 and a pin at 285 by senior Bob Coe that gave Catholic Central its first lead at 20-18.
“The whole year we didn’t talk about repeating,” Coe said. “Now that it’s done, we can talk about a repeat. I firmly believe we have the best coaching staff in the country and the hardest-working team in the country.”
One of the big reasons Davison was able to stay with Catholic Central and nearly win was the return two-time individual champion Justin Oliver and the performance of freshman Max Johnson.
Oliver did not compete in the Cardinals’ first match with the Shamrocks, and they both recorded key victories Saturday. Oliver opened the match at 130 by recording a 3-0 victory over Myles Amine, giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
After Catholic Central came and took the lead, Johnson gave Davison the lead back at 23-20 with a technical fall victory, 15-0, over the Shamrocks’ Tommy Herrimann at 103 pounds.
“Justin Oliver is a two-time state champion,” said Hall of Oliver, who returned to the Cardinals’ lineup at the team District tournament. “He is a stud and he lights up an athletic event. I was happy with the effort. That’s all you can ask for. Our guys will be back.”
The Cardinals almost put a huge distance between themselves and Catholic Central when Jacob Madrigal nearly pinned Parker O’Brien at 112 pounds.
Trailing 4-2 with less than 10 seconds left in the third period, Madrigal flipped O’Brien over and came seconds away from securing a pin before time expired. O’Brien took the victory and tied the match.
“I went a little too quick,” O’Brien said. “I went for two points (takedown) and I got a little sloppy. I just held on for the win.”
The loss was only the Cardinals’ third to a Michigan team this season. Besides Catholic Central, the only other Michigan squad to beat Davison was St. Johns, which beat Lowell, 42-20, in the Division 2 championship match.
“It’s very tough,” Hancock said of having to face Davison again. “We knew they were a much better team than we faced in December. Anytime you have (Davison’s coaches) Roy Hall and Paul Donahoe in a corner, you’re in for a war. We persevered.”
Richmond Takes Latest Dramatic D3 Final
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 25, 2017
MOUNT PLEASANT – It took 14 matches and eight steps through the dual meet tiebreaker criteria Saturday to decide the latest edition of the wrestling rivalry between Richmond and Dundee.
But when Criteria H showed a 17-8 advantage for Richmond in total first points scored, it was Blue Devils coach Brandon Day who turned to his team with a triumphant fist in the air, sending the Richmond wrestlers and crowd into hysterics.
“I walked to the table and (Dundee coach Tim Roberts) told me, ‘You already won,’” Day said. “I told him, ‘We’ve got to quit doing this.’”
Richmond prevailed in the back-and-forth Division 3 title match, which ended tied at 28 following a 4-3 win from Richmond 130-pound sophomore Hayden Bastian. The title is Richmond’s eighth, and first since 2015 when it defeated Dundee in somehow less dramatic fashion with a pair of pins in the final two matches.
“It’s crazy, you don’t know what’s going to happen – it’s like the lottery,” said Richmond senior 112-pounder Roy Costello, who had one of those pins in 2015, and won a 3-2 decision on Saturday night. “It’s really suspenseful, your heart’s beating 100 mph, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The two teams were deadlocked through the first seven criteria, which includes three varieties of penalty points assessed, total matches won, pinfalls, technical falls and major decisions. It was fitting for a rivalry that has dominated Division 3 since 2006, with the teams now having combined to win 10 of the last 12 titles -- Richmond with six and Dundee with four. Of those 10, seven were won against the other.
“Our programs are intertwined now because we’ve wrestled each other so many times in this situation,” Roberts said. “Today they were that much better than us. It’s pretty close, but they did that much better than us today, so they get to be champs this year. It’s close, but they won.”
The dual was tied three times over the final five matches -- 22-22, 25-25 and 28-28. The final tie was forced by Bastian, who recorded a takedown with less than 30 seconds remaining to send the match to the scorebooks.
“I was stressed -- I was so nervous that I wasn’t going to get a takedown,” said Bastian, who didn’t know if his win would give his team the title. “I’m fairly new to the sport. I started wrestling in seventh grade. I don’t really know much. My first match I didn’t really know what I was doing. I don’t know almost anything, I just go out there and wrestle my best.”
Bastian’s coach had plenty of confidence in him before sending him out onto the mat.
“Hayden Bastian is the best kid in the state nobody knows about,” Day said. “He made 130 for the first time here this weekend, and that was the difference.”
Added Costello: “Hayden performed awesome this whole weekend. Even though he’s not a state qualifier, he performed awesome.”
Dundee jumped out to a 22-9 lead in the match, getting pins from Sean Sterling at 160 pounds and Brandon Whitman at 189, a major decision at 145 from Tylor Orrison and decisions from Zachary Bellaire at 140 and Kyle Motylinski at 171.
Even with the lead, however, Roberts didn’t feel safe.
“We knew we needed more,” Roberts said. “We needed another win down there that we didn’t get. We knew we were kind of in trouble at 22-9. At 119 and 125, our guys did a nice job and came away with wins there, but we knew we were one win short when it was 22-9.”
Richmond stormed back to tie the dual with a major decision from Colton McKiernan at 215, a decision from Tyler Marino at 285 and a pin from Austin Kilburn at 103.
Kilburn’s pin ended a wild match against Dundee’s Caleb Fairchild, which saw both wrestlers taken to their backs in the opening period. Kilburn, a freshman, regained his composure and scored seven more points before getting the pin with 41 seconds left in the match.
Costello’s win put the Blue Devils up 25-22, but Daniel Jaworski (119) and Christian Killion (125) each won decisions for the Vikings to give them the 28-25 lead heading into the final match.
Richmond opened the dual with a pin from senior Owen Vannatter at 135 pounds, and after Dundee took a 7-6 lead with its wins from Bellaire and Orrison, Richmond sophomore Eric Barr pulled off an upset at 152 with a 3-2 win against Dundee’s Alex Motylinski.
“Eric Barr!” Day shouted. “Eric Barr knocked off No. 3 in the state. (Barr) didn’t make it out of our Regional. That was huge.”
The MHSAA Wrestling Finals are presented by the Michigan Army National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dundee (left) and Richmond faced off Saturday for the eighth time over the last decade of Division 3 Finals. (Middle) Dundee’s Sean Sterling works toward a pin during his match at 160. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)