Clarkston senior wrestlers Archer Anderson and Preston Lefevre hope to do something this season that they couldn’t last year – spur each other on to Individual Finals titles. 

So, why couldn’t they do so last year? Because only one of them could win it all. 

Anderson and Lefevre both advanced through last year’s Division 1 Individual Finals field at 120 pounds to reach the championship match, where they ended up running into … each other. 

The two squared off for the title in a battle of teammates, with Anderson earning a 10-8 win in overtime.

“It was pretty cool,” said Anderson, recalling the match during the first day of this season’s Oakland County meet last month. “It was really tough because you know exactly what he was going do. But that was in the past. We are just trying to get better and focusing on improvement.”

Added Lefevre: “I wouldn’t say it was awkward as much it was bittersweet. It was cool that one of us got to win.”

This year, it’s possible both will celebrate Finals championships.

The two started this winter in different weight classes, with Anderson wrestling at 126 pounds and Lefevre at 132.

“Whatever weight is best for the individual, that’s where they are going to go,” Lefevre said. “We just figured out that 126 and 132 was where we were going to be. I just got bigger.”

At the Oakland County tournament, Anderson won the title at 126 pounds, while Lefevre advanced to the championship at 132 pounds before losing to Jace Morgan of Rochester Adams. Morgan was a semifinalist at 126 pounds at last year’s MHSAA Tournament and has signed to wrestle for Michigan State. 

Both Anderson and Lefevre look primed to be among the best in the state in their weight classes. They had an active offseason, with both competing among other decorated high school wrestlers at the Super 32 Challenge in North Carolina in October. 

“We got some chances at some nationally-ranked wrestlers, so that was fun,” Anderson said. 

Anderson and Lefevre both were voted team captains, and both have embraced the extra responsibility of leading the others on the squad.

“Just trying to get better and we’ve been setting a good example for the underclassmen,” Anderson said. 

Of course, that starts with leading by example with how they train with each other every day in practice. 

The weight classes might have changed, but the fact that the two are still training partners and go at it regularly hasn’t changed a bit.

It’s all for the best though, where their technique, and physical and mental toughness is honed.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Lefevre said. “We are in there every day scrapping and getting better. Everything gets better. Even your mindset. I got to hate losing.”

Clarkston head coach Brian Gibbs has seen the two push each other in practice ever since they were freshmen, and it will obviously be a strange sight not to see them do so in the Clarkston wrestling room once they graduate.

“They have been true competitors year over year and continually work on refining their craft,” Gibbs said. “The fact they finally wrestled each other in the state finals has only increased their competitiveness and drive to be better. They are great friends and drill partners. Both of them have done tremendous things for this program, and I’m extremely grateful to have them with us.”

Having two of the state’s top wrestlers in the lower weights is an advantage many teams don’t have, and both Anderson and Lefevre hope that means they’ll take Clarkston to a place the Wolves haven’t been during their high school careers – the Team Finals in Kalamazoo. 

“It’s been a goal of ours to make states because we haven’t done it,” he said. “That’s always been a goal.”

Whether or not Clarkston is in Kalamazoo as a team, expectations are Anderson and Lefevre will once again be center stage at Ford Field for the Individual Finals.

This time though, the plan is for both to be raising an arm in victory after the championship match. 

Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Clarkston teammates Archer Anderson (left) and Preston Lefevre compete against each other for the Division 1 championship at 120 pounds last season. (Middle) Archer and Lefevre top the awards podium at Ford Field. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)