SENIOR BLAISE Ryan is making the most of his final season as a Huron wrestler. Ryan has missed quite a few matches with injury this season but is getting healthier and took second at districts. Ryan will be looking to finish in the top four this weekend in Manton to qualify for the state finals. (Photo by Angie Asam)

Following a dramatic and exciting team district title at home last Wednesday night the Rogers City Hurons wrestling team was in Munising Saturday for the individual district tournament. Six Hurons appeared in the district championship matches and all six will move on to the regional round this Saturday in Manton. The formula is simple, finish in the top four at regionals and move on to the state finals. Junior Evan Lamb was dominant on the day at 130 pounds as he cruised to the district title. Lamb pinned Kristina Ventimiglia of Newberry in 14 seconds and Robert Schrovenwever in 1:03 to advance to the finals. In the finals he defeated St. Ignace’s Jason Brown by technical fall 19-4.

Lamb is currently ranked seventh in the state and will look to make his third consecutive trip to the individual finals. He is now 46-4 on the season and has 146 career wins. He will be looking to earn victory number 150 Saturday. “Evan was just dominant on the day, there is not much else to say about that. He pretty much just breezed through his weight class. It won’t be as easy this weekend but it is better to enter as a one seed,” said coach Pat Lamb.

Freshman Jacob Sobeck (112) was the other Huron to earn a district title Saturday as he defeated Rudyard’s Zackery Carter-Powell by pin in 1:31 before pinning cousin and teammate Noah Sobeck in 54 seconds to advance to the finals. In the championship match he defeated Jared Gauthier of Iron Mountain 4-1. Jacob Sobeck is now 47-5 on the season as he enters his first postseason looking to qualify for the state finals.

“The last time Jacob wrestled Jared Gauthier he provided a little scare. This time he was in control of the whole match. I was really pleased with his effort and he wrestled like a champion,” said coach Lamb. Senior Joe Sobeck (119) won by pin in 37 seconds over Nicholas Drake of Rudyard before defeating Michael Meadows of Mancelona 9-2 to advance to the finals where he was defeated by Iron Mountain’s Ryan Gauthier 5-0 to finish second. After qualifying for the state finals in both his freshman and sophomore seasons Joe Sobeck came up a little short a year ago and is looking not to be denied in his senior season. He is currently 28-5 on the year.

Joe Sobeck has faced Ryan Gauthier seven times in their careers, as they are both seniors, however he has never beaten him. “He gives him a full measure of his ablility each time and maybe before their careers are over Joe will get a win. I can’t fault his effort, he just got beat by a better wrestler,” said coach Lamb. Senior Blaise Ryan finished second at 152 pounds as he defeated Rudyard’s Mat Zahara 1-3 and Kyle Mathias of Bark River Harris 10-5 to advance to the finals. In the finals he fell to Mancelona’s Tyler Aldrich 7-5 to finish second. Ryan will be looking to qualify for his first career trip to wrestle at the individual state finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Ryan has been injured and missed some matches this season but coach Lamb believes he has turned a corner as he is getting healthy and in better wrestling shape. “I’m really proud of the effort that he put out there and the sky is the limit for what he can do. We hope he can come out and qualify for state,” said coach Lamb.

Junior Caleb Pommerenke (189) finished in second place as well. Pommerenke won by pin in 45 seconds over Mancelona’s Tristan Walters and defeated Curtis Labadie of Bark River Harris 17-2 before falling to Billy Burklund of Norway via pin in 5:03 in the finals. Pommerenke qualified for the state finals as a freshman and will look to get back after he was kept out of wrestling by injury a year ago. Pommerenke was ahead in his finals match before getting caught and pinned. Coach Lamb said that Pommerenke knows he made a mistake and hopes he can learn from it and move on.

Sophomore Andrew Selke (215) was the final Huron to qualify as he took second place. Selke won by pin in one minute over Cory Gillett of Rudyard and in 53 seconds over Jason Davis of Onaway to get to the finals. In the finals against defending state champion Joe Ostman of St. Ignace, Selke fell by pin in 3:14.

“I have seen the brackets for individual regionals and I think we are all sitting in pretty good shape and hopefully all six can qualify for state,” said coach Lamb. Jack Ryan (125), Daniel Pflug (135), Austin Bober (140), Cameron Urban (103), Noah Sobeck (112) and Darik McDonald (285) were each 1-2 on the day needing to win just one more match to advance