Another great season for Manchester wrestling

Manchester wrestling team

submitted by Coach Steve Vlcek

It’s been another great year for our High School wrestling team, as we finished out our league with a 7–0 record in duals and then won the League tournament by 40 points.

We had five League Champions: at 106, Onyx Ostrum took home first with two first-period pins. At 113, we had freshman Sammy Stewart win his first title with two convincing wins. At 132, senior Nick Patrick, wrestling in his first season for us, also had two first-period pins.

Mason Schmitt, who took home his third League championship, had two pins and a tech fall. Freshman Blake Sloan had two pins to bring home his first League title.

We had four second-place finishers: sophomore Nathan Meyer, sophomore Bubba Duffing, senior Ben Gautz, and sophomore Nathan Fletcher. Taking third was Thomas Gautz and rounding out our placers were freshman Chase Conklin and sophomore Gunner Carson. Sean Sayer and Drake Neff contributed but did not place.

This was our 16th consecutive Conference title, dating back to 2008, which has been a great run. Following that up, last Wednesday we had Team Districts where we won 50–15 over Whitmore Lake, then shut out Sand Creek 80–0. Along with the League streak, our District streak now is at 18 years since 2006.

It was a great team effort as our 23-strong team wrestled well together to bring home the victories. Saturday in our home gym, the team wrestled fantastically, qualifying 13 out of 14 for individual regionals, which will be held in Hudson next Saturday. Wrestling will start around 9am.

First year senior Brandon Blumenauer wrestled well, but didn’t qualify. Onyx once again had two pins to bring home his first District Championship. Sammy also pinned his two opponents; all of this with a serious hand injury, which kept him out most of the season.  Mason won a hard-fought finals match with teammate Nick Patrick to bring home his second District Championship. Blake dominated his way through his bracket, bringing home the gold. Bubba won his first District Championship. We had several second-place finishes — Chase was runner-up to teammate Sammy; Chase has been a great addition to the team with a solid freshman season. Nick, who we mentioned earlier, took home his first District medal. Gunner ran into a returning state champ and came up a little short but has had a tremendous sophomore season so far. Ben, who we finally got back on the mat with three ACL operations over his first three seasons, brought home a well-deserved second place. It’s great to see him back on the mat for the Dutchmen.

Dylan Gauss, who has been our anchor up top, continues to impress, more than tripling his win totals from last year. He lost a tough finals match and ended up placing second. Nathan Meyer brought home third with a nice revenge match, winning convincingly 6–0 to a kid he lost to earlier in the year. Adam Grebe went 2–2 on the day with two pins to finish fourth along with Nathan Fletcher, who also had two pins while finishing fourth.

This Wednesday we will be traveling to Capac to try and qualify for Team States, which will be held at K-wings Stadium in Kalamazoo.

Good luck, Dutch Wrestlers!

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.