Hurons capture SAC title, Ben Tulgestke gets 100th win

by Angie Asam, Staff Writer

At home for the Straits Area Conference tournament the Rogers City Hurons varsity wrestling team was dominant as they won the meet by nearly 50 points. Rogers City was first at 198 followed by St. Ignace at 150 and Mio at 124.5. ?We accomplished one of our major goals that we had for this year and that was to get the Straits Area Conference title back, especially since it was being held here in Rogers City. I really think that our kids responded very well to that, being in town. We just wrestled extremely well, it was a total team effort out there,? said coach Pat Lamb. Five Hurons took first place in the conference and all five of them won via the pin in the finals. Sophomore Joey Sobeck (112) defeated Dakota McLennan of St. Ignace by pin in 32 seconds to make the finals. In the finals Sobeck defeated Adam Taggart of Mio by pin in 5:34 to capture his second straight conference title. Sobeck?s season record now stands at 38-10.

Freshman Evan Lamb (125) defeated Neil Hanson of Mio by major decision with a score of 19-7 before defeating Tommy McDade of Onaway by pin in one minute to place first. With the 2-0 effort Saturday Lamb improved to 39-7 on the season Junior Keegan Urban (130) improved to 38-10 on the season. Urban was 2-0 Saturday as he pinned Guy Herro of Cheboygan in 3:44 and Lou Radecki of St. Ignace in 3:05 to win a conference title. Junior Daniel Marx (135), now 25-20 on the season, pinned Tyler Dumas of Newberry in 2:57 and Joe Krause of St. Ignace in 51 seconds to earn a first place.

In his only match of the day, for the conference title, junior Devin Pommerenke (285) defeated Brandon Garlinghouse of Sault Ste. Marie by pin in 1:39 for his third consecutive conference title. Pommerenke is now 46-0 on the season and has won 105 consecutive matches, he is 11th all time for wins with 158 and needs just 19 more pins to tie the school record for pins in a career (134, Duane Woloszyk). Senior Ben Tulgestke (160) defeated William Bingley of Mio by pin in 47 seconds and then defeated Trey Leach of Onaway 3-2 for his 100th career victory and a spot in the finals. In the finals Ben Tulgestke would wrestle a tough match against a very good wrestler in St. Ignace?s Galloway Thurston falling 3-0 to place second.

?Ben, what can you say about Ben. He has that constant smile on his face but deep down he is tougher than nails. He just goes out there and gets the job done. To win his 100th match in the semifinals to get into the finals at a tournament in Rogers City was just awesome and against one of his archrivals at that. He accomplished so many things by winning that match; he got his seed back for districts and vaulted himself into the finals. One hundred wins along the way, Ben did not wrestle varsity as a freshman, so he did that in just three years, that is a great accomplishment,? said coach Lamb.

Sophomore Alex Bidlake (103) defeated Bill Bentgen of St. Ignace by pin in one minute before falling to Mio?s Zack Mack in the finals 20-5 and placing second. Sophomore Chris Pflug (215) defeated Harry Lunceford of Onaway 6-5 in ultimate overtime to get into the finals where he fell to Matt Duffiney of Cheboygan in 3:59 to place second. ?I think Chris Pflug coming through and taking second place for us was huge. Alex Bidlake just wrestled his butt off and ended up placing second,? said coach Lamb. Also placing second for the Hurons were senior Jacob Reisener (171) and freshman Caleb Pommerenke (189) both wrestlers were 1-1 on the day.

Sophomore Blaise Ryan (140) was 3-1 on the day to place third. Ryan defeated Sven Reichelt of Rudyard 7-1 before falling to Dylan Jensen of Mio in 48 seconds. Ryan then defeated Gary Bryan of Onaway 6-5 and Robert Lozano of Cheboygan 16-6 to place third. Junior Greg Tulgestke (145) was also 3-1 on the day to place third. Greg Tulgestke defeated Caleb Litzner of St. Ignace by pin in 1:55 before falling to defending state champion Aaron Smith of Mio 14-2. Greg Tulgestke would then battle back with a 8-7 win over Mike Looby of Newberry and a 5-4 win over Devin Woiderski of Cheboygan. Junior Travis Fleis (119) and senior Brandon Haneckow (152) were each 2-0 on the day but lost matches by one point which would have qualified them for the match for third place.

?Our guys are really coming together right now and the sky is the limit for what we ca

n accomplish. We knocked down one of our goals and have two more looming, of course we have to win the district title before we can go on and win a regional title. That is our number one focus right now, going up to Newberry on Thursday and trying to reclaim that district title that we lost last year after we had it here in Rogers City for a long, long time. That?s something that has been on our minds since last year at this time. It is something that I don?t think our boys are going to be denied. I think they are going to show up to wrestle hard on Thursday regardless of who our competition is,? said coach Lamb.

The Hurons traveled to Newberrry today (Thursday) for the team district tournament with Rudyard, Newberry and St. Ignace. The individual district tournament will be held Saturday in St. Ignace. Should the Hurons win the district title they will travel to Manistique Wednesday Feb. 17 for the team regional meet. Individual regionals, featuring those who place in the top four in their district, will be held in Rogers City on Feb. 20.