Wrestlers begin post-season action this week

by Angie Asam–Staff Writer

The regular season has come to an end for the Rogers City Hurons varsity wrestling team. The Hurons were at Rudyard Saturday for the Straits Area Conference tournament where they finished third with 144 points. St. Ignace won the meet with 166.5 and Sault Ste. Marie was second at 151.5.

Senior co-captains Evan Lamb (140) and Caleb Pommerenke (189) were the only Hurons to earn conference championships on the day. Lamb defeated Levi Furr of Sault Ste. Marie by technical fall in 4:36 as he was up 17-2 and pinned Onaway’s Morgan Robins in 2:48 to earn his fourth consecutive conference title.

Lamb is now 42-2 on the season and 196-27 for his career. He is fifth on the all-time career wins list behind Chase McLennan (197), Duane Woloszyk (205), Devin Pommerenke (210) and Dylan Centala (220).

 

Corey Schaedig

Caleb Pommerenke pinned Cheboygan’s Caleb Compton in 39 seconds and Austin Brown of Sault Ste. Marie in 53 seconds to take the title. Caleb Pommerenke is now 37-5 on the season and 118-39 for his career.

Sophomore Cameron Urban (119), junior Jared LaFleche (171) and freshman Justin Saile (103) each finished second on the day.

Sophomore Jacob Sobeck took third at 130 pounds.

“We moved Jacob up a weight class in hopes he could beat Bentley and take points away from St. Ignace. Jacob wrestled fantastic in that match. I just have to tip my hat to him. He isn’t going to sit and bellyache about the fact that he could have won at 125. He said ‘coach you told me to do a job and you wanted me to do a job for my team and I didn’t do it but I did my best’,” said coachPat  Lamb.

Sophomore Austin Bober also finished third at 145 pounds. Senior Grant Popour (135) finished fourth on the day as did junior co-captain Jack Ryan at 152 pounds.

Junior Corey Schaedig (215) also finished fourth on the day winning two matches via the bye to place at the tournament. Also wrestling for the Hurons were Autumn Blanchard (125), Blake Fessler (160) and Sage Sawyer (285).

LAST THURSDAY the Hurons were

in Rudyard for the final conference quad of the season where they defeated Rudyard 54-30 and Newbery 64-12. Double winners for the Hurons were Ryan, Fessler, LaFleche, Urban, Sobeck, Lamb and Bober. Going 1-1 on the day were Daniel Pflug, Schaedig, Sawyer, Saile, Blanchard and Popour.

The Hurons are at team districts today (Thursday) in Onaway where they take on the winner of the Onaway/Charlevoix match for the district title. The district champion will advance to regionals on Feb. 13 in Manistique. They will be at individual districts Saturday in Ishpeming and will host individual regionals next Saturday.

(A complete version of this story appears in the February 7, 2013 edition of the Advance)