Hurons stopped at q-finals by Bronson 31-25

Rogers City?s 2006-07 season came to an end last Friday on the mats of Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek with the Hurons (25-3) getting eliminated from the Division IV tournament by seventh ranked Bronson, 31-25. It is Rogers City?s third straight trip to the MHSAA team state finals, but the first time during this current streak they failed to advance to the semifinals. That might explain head coach Pat Lamb?s disappointment with this year?s finish. ?We had a great season, you cannot take anything away from that. We had some sickness earlier in the week that really hurt our chances,? said Lamb Tuesday afternoon. ?Am I happy about it, no I am not. I think given the opportunity to wrestle that same team over again, it might be different each time we wrestle.?

THE HURONS found themselves down, 18-0, after the first three matches. To dig themselves out of the hole, they needed some pins. ?I knew going in we were going to need some pins,? said Lamb. ?I never would have envisioned that we would get only one pin. That was the difference in the match.? The Vikings started fast by winning with two pins and from a disqualification. Wrestling started at 189 pounds. Joe Finch was pinned in 1:20 by Adam Paul. He was followed to the mat by Derek Schleben, who was still not 100 percent healed from a knee injury suffered the opening weekend of the season. Schleben was disqualified for stalling 1:30 into his match against Austin Crabill. Lamb was stunned by the call.

?THAT MATCH was taken away from Derek,? said Lamb. ?I never in my 36 years of being involved in wrestling seen anybody disqualified for stalling in a minute and a half. The rule book states that if you are being over-powered it is not stalling.? Noah Farmer (285) was pinned in 1:28 by Corey Clemens, putting Rogers City in a position to make up a lot of ground early. Needing a win, T. J. Sobeck knocked one into the seats for the home team with the quickest pin of the dual. He took care of Mitchell Klingler in 1:12. The victory cut the deficit to 18-6, but more importantly, made a statement that the Hurons were not going to go easy. Jacob Vogler (112) trailed 2-0 early against Brad Losinski, but came back with a reversal late in the second to grab a 3-2 lead. It was the first match to make it out of the first period. He added a take down early in the third and held on for a 5-4 win. That made the score 12-9, Bronson.

AT 119, Mike Vogler started with a take down, but Josh Czajkowski came back to tie the match at two. Czajkowski committed a couple of technical violations in overtime and lost 4-2 in the second overtime period. ?Mike showed a lot of heart in that match,? said Lamb. ?A lot of that came from the fact that he was fatigued. Michael wrestled hard the entire match and wore the kid out.? That made the score 18-12. At 125, Alex Matthews lost a major decision to Drew Ferry, but Tharin Wilk (130) came back with a major decision, a 15-5 over Preston Lucas. That put the score at 22-16. The Hurons would lose the next three decisions, though. B

rent Freel (135) dropped a 10-6 bout to Shaydon Weaver; Zak McLennan lost to Zac Chantrenne, 12-5; while Dustin Hein was saddled with an 8-7 loss. Tyler Schuiteman (152) closed out his team-wrestling career with an 8-5 decision over Chris Swift.

AT 160, Jerome Gapczynski defeated Travis Gump 4-2. Following the Gapczynski match, the score was 31-22, with Bronson already having the win in hand. In the final match, Chase McLennan mopped the floor with Bryant Byler, 9-3. Bronson improved to 27-4 and went on to lose to eventual state champ, Addison, 46-12. Addison has won three straight Division IV titles in a row.

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