Not a day for breaks for Rogers City?s state placers

Three RCHS juniors placed near the top of the pack at the individual state finals in suburban Detroit. T.J. Sobeck (103 pounds), Tharin Wilk (130), and Chase McLennan (171) added to the long list of Rogers City?s state placers. In the 30-plus years of wrestling in Rogers City, there have been 51 state placings from 31 individuals. Wilk was this year?s highest placer and ended up fourth on the podium, while Sobeck and McLennan took fifth place medals. Senior Tyler Schuiteman (152, 1-2) and sophomore Jacob Vogler (112, 0-2) were Rogers City?s other state qualifiers. Wilk and McLennan were both one win away from competing for a championship, but found the points hard to come by in the semifinals. Wilk lost in overtime, 6-4, while McLennan dropped his match 4-1.

WILK WAS coming on strong in the second and third period after getting down early, but his opponent, Mark Ackerberg of Hesperia, kept his distance. ?He backed up almost every time,? said Wilk. ?They played their cards right.? Eight seconds into overtime, the official gave Ackerberg a takedown along the out-of-bounds line when it looked like the wrestlers were hip-to-hip, said Wilk. He suffered a groin muscle pull in the match, but it was not noticeable as he was dominant in a major decision against Taylor Hatfield of Pittsford, 13-1. In Wilk?s attempt to become the 13th Huron to place third at state, Brian Burk of Reading proved to be too much in an 11-4 loss.

In battling at state this year as a junior, Wilk believes he was just as good as anyone at the finals. He learned ?I can hang with them. I can do anything they can do.? Wilk pinned his first opponent before winning a 7-4 decision against 41-1 Andre Sanson of Brown City. MCLENNAN PINNED his opponent in the first round and took an 8-6 decision to get in the semifinals against Chet Green of Addison. Green grabbed the lead late in the first period, 2-0, but McLennan came back with an escape to make it 2-1. In the second period, the official awarded a take down to Green along the out-of-bounds line. Head coach Pat Lamb immediately got up from his chair and shouted ?No!? That made it 4-1, which ended up being the final score. It was another match where the breaks did not go the Hurons? way. ?When our wrestler is in a position to score twice and a stalemate is called twice, I would say the breaks went his way, but we have to overcome them,? said Lamb. McLennan lost in the consolation bracket to Kyle Hillard of Hudson, 9-7, in overtime, ending his shot at third. He did end on a winning note, with a 7-3 decision over Jake Blackmer of Hart to move into fifth. ?This year, I did not wrestle as well,? said McLennan, who finished as a state runner-up as a sophomore. ?It is kind of disappointing. I guess it was not my day in these tournaments.?

SOBECK HAD a memo

rable finish during his final match of his finals appearance with a pin (3:15) against T.J. Berridge of Martin for his 100th career win. He had lost in the quarterfinals to Berridge early Friday, 6-4. He won a pair of decisions in the consolation bracket, but came up on the short end of a close call in overtime to Blake Birchmeier of New Lothrop, 2-0, in a shot at placing third. It was a crushing call for Sobeck, who could not believe the points were awarded. That set up the exciting finale for the two-time state qualifier. ?Not placing where I wanted to makes me look forward to next year a lot more,? said Sobeck.

Lamb was expecting a little better performance at The Palace. ?We did not have a very good tournament, for whatever reason. For the second week in a row I failed to motivate my athletes to bring their best game here,? said Lamb. ?I guess we have some thinking to do, whether or not there needs to be some changes made.?