JUNIOR EVAN Lamb earned his second consecutive title at the Gaylord Northern Michigan Championships Saturday. Here Lamb competes in the finals against Alpena’s Andreas Hantizies and holds him down to take the win. Lamb now has 139 career wins and will look for a postseason run to reach the elusive 150-wins plateau. (Photo by Angie Asam)

The Rogers City Hurons wrestling team traveled to Gaylord Saturday to take part in the 32-team Gaylord Northern Michigan Championships (NMC) invitational. The Hurons ended the day with five wrestlers earning medals and finished fourth overall. Junior co-captain Evan Lamb (130) was the lone Huron to place first on the day. Lamb is now a two-time champion at the NMC. He was in the finals his freshman year but was knocked out and could not continue, denying him any chance of being a four-time champion, something only four wrestlers have accomplished. However, Lamb will return his senior season and attempt to win three straight to join elite company.

Lamb pinned Escanaba’s Tyler Larson in 1:20 to open the day before a quick 43-second pin over Jake Rayes of Oscoda to earn a spot in the semifinals. A 5-2 win over Steven Kymes of Sault Ste. Marie secured his spot in the finals. Up against Andreas Hantizies of Alpena, Lamb dominated the match to win 3-0 and earn his second straight title.

“I was really impressed with Evan’s wrestling in the fact that he was able to ride his opponents. That is something we have been working on going into the postseason; being able to keep our opponents down on the mat. Even though his semifnal and finals match scores were close it was a pretty dominating performance, it wasn’t like his lead was ever in jeopardy. I am very pleased with the way Evan wrestled and carried himself Saturday,” said coach Pat Lamb.

Lamb is now 39-4 on the year and has 139 career wins. He will be looking to continue his dominance as he works towards his postseason goals and winning 150 career matches. Freshman Jacob Sobeck (112) was the other Huron in the finals as he worked a quick 13-second pin over Andrew Davis of Boyne City to start the day before pinning Escanaba’s Devin Slaga in 1:32 to stamp his ticket into the semifinals. Jacob Sobeck then defeated Iron Mountain’s Jared Gauthier 10-7 to earn a spot in the finals. In the finals he lost at the 5:39 mark to Zach Schaub of Traverse City St. Francis in a tough match.

“I am a little bit disappointed in the officials in his finals match. I thought that there was some unnecessary roughness going on that possibly should have been called, that would have changed the outcome of the match. As it was Jacob wrestled the whole third period basically hurting. He isn’t going to give up, however, he wasn’t feeling the best in that third period because of some things that had transpired during the match,” said coach Lamb.

Jacob Sobeck was slammed to the mat hard twice in his finals match but never gave up wrestling as well as he could. He is now 40-4 on the season. Senior co-captain Joe Sobeck (119) took third on the day as he lost a tough semifinals match to Dustin Noreyko of Roscommon 7-3 before battling back to pin Grayling’s Cody Elmy in 2:32 to take third. He is now 23-3 on the season.

Freshman Cameron Urban (103) took fourth on the day. Urban defeated Sage Erickson of Whitemore Prescott by pin in 59 seconds before pinning Jose Iseler of Gaylord in 1:52 to get into the semifinals. Urban then lost a tough fought battle to Eric Wales of Traverse City St. Francis. In his match for third Urban battled until the final whistle falling to Joe Traynham of Onaway 13-3.

Urban never quit in his semifinals match as he continued battling. “His opponent was warned for stalling and continued to stall but the referee was not willing to make the call to tie the match. I was disappointed that he didn’t make the call,” said coach Lamb. Urban also battled hard for third place. “The score ended a bit lopsided but only because Cameron was going after it, taking risks trying to get his opponent on his back. I cannot fault his effort. I am extremely proud of the way he wrestled,” said coach Lamb. Junior Caleb Pommerenke (189) placed fifth on the day after losing a heartbreaking match in the final 30 seconds in the quarterfinals. Pommerenke pinned St. Ignace’s Wyatt Orm in 51 seconds before falling to Trevor Willnow of Traverse City West. Pommerenke then battled back pinning George Kimber of Marquette in 2:04 and defeating Gaylord’s Eric Mason 6-2 to place fifth.

“He came back and did the very best he could. He was disappointed that he wasn’t in the finals but for him to come back like he did, I am very pleased with that. Its tough to do when you are an accomplished wrestler,” said coach Lamb. Senior co-captain Blaise Ryan (145) and sophomore Andrew Selke (215) were both 1-2 on the day and were the only other Hurons to win a match. THE HURONS are in Mio Saturday for the Straits Area Conference tournament before starting the state tournament next week. Rogers City will host the team district tournament Wednesday Feb. 8 to kick off the postseason.