A week after packing the home gym with fans the Rogers City wrestling team packed St. Ignace’s gym with fans as they brought home the regional title Wednesday with wins over Iron Mountain and Onaway. The Hurons will travel to the state quarterfinals in Battle Creek on Feb. 24.

Following a pep assembly the Rogers City Hurons varsity wrestling team departed for St. Ignace for team regionals. Behind them would be a packed fan bus, carrying loyal fans of the orange and black. “Well, wow. It was just a great performance by the Hurons. Again we had our 15th man up there, the crowd was just unbelievable,” said coach Pat Lamb. The orange and black took over the gymnasium not only in number but in volume and in the way they competed as the Hurons beat Iron Mountain 48-29 and Onaway 43-34 to capture the regional championship and move on to the state quarterfinals Feb. 24 at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.

“It was like districts. Each match was like a chess match with each coach trying to get the matchups they wanted out there, things just worked out in our favor. We wrestled two good teams tonight. It wasn’t easy, it was a battle, we had to get through two battles to win the war,” said coach Lamb. “Coach Lamb gets where he gets because he is awfully good at matchups. He is a good coach, has a good program and does a fantastic job with matchups,” said Onaway head coach Mark Grant.

Coach Lamb did take his hat off to the Onaway Cardinals and coach Grant. “They really came to wrestle tonight. What a showing for Presque Isle County. In the most northern region in Division IV, two teams from our county butted heads for the regional title. It was a shame we both couldn’t win,” he said. Pairings for the quarterfinals will be set on Sunday and the Hurons will prepare for whoever their opponent will be.

Double winners on Wednesday in the team regional tournament were Blaise Ryan (160), Caleb Pommerenke (189/215), Andrew Selke (285), Jacob Sobeck (112/19), Cameron Urban (112/19), Joe Sobeck (130) and Evan Lamb (135). Single winners were Jack Ryan (125), Chris Pflug (189) and Austin Bober (152).

“I am so proud of these kids for what they have been through all year. We have been through a lot of injuries and a lot of times when the team was short on numbers and we didn’t have a lot of depth but when they all came back and they all got healthy again they just went to work and they came out and the brought it everyday. Everyday that we asked them to step across that line they brought everything that they had 100 percent or more effort every time; in practice, in school, on the mat, off the mat, they just brought 110 percent effort in whatever they did. That is why they are such a great group of kids. They believe in each other, they believe in themselves and when you believe you can achieve your goals and that is what happened tonight,” said coach Lamb.