Hartland dispatches Adams, Clarkston for 10th straight regional title
UPSIDE DOWN: Hartland's Matt Ostermiller turned Clarkston's Matt Vandermeer over in Wednesday's regional finals. Staff Photo by Larry McKee | www.lmckeephotography.com
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
HARTLAND — It may almost seem like a right of passage, but Hartland is making a return trip to the Division 1 state quarterfinals.
The fourth-ranked Eagles, slated for a rebuilding year, took down a pair of OAA Red Division schools Wednesday on their home mats, topping Rochester Adams 45-20 and Clarkston 48-15 in the finals of a D-1 wrestling regional to keep the Eagles’ string of 10 straight regional championships alive.
The pair of lopsided wins surprised even veteran Hartland coach Todd Chaney.
“I didn’t know what to expect this season. We had a lot of holes,” admitted Chaney. “But we have found a way. I had four freshmen and three sophomores out there tonight. Half of our lineup is young guys. I thought we wrestled very well. I didn’t think we’d win by this much.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: To view a gallery of this event, please visit www.lmckeephotography.com
The pair of wins gives Hartland not only a stellar 29-2 record, but vaults the Eagles to its 12th regional crown in 15 seasons. Hartland advances to Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena Feb. 25 at 3:15 p.m. to face an undetermined opponent.
CRY UNCLE: Hartland's Ross Kantola has Rochester Adams' Jack Addy in his grip during Wednesday's regional semifinal. Staff Photo by Larry McKee, www.lmckeephotography.com
The MHSAA will seed the quarterfinals in each of the state’s four divisions and will release those pairings Sunday night.
“I remember our first (regional title) in ’96 and it was a big deal,” said Chaney. “We won again in ’97, then we didn’t come back until 2002 and we’ve been here ever since. It doesn’t get old. It’s been a crazy run.”
After four weight classes against Clarkston, the Eagles led just 11-9. Back-to-back pins and a void put Hartland in command, at 29-9, halfway through the match. Mitchel Thomas (140), Chase Snider (145) and Keith Boldt (119) had pins for the Eagles. Boldt began the match with his pin and the Eagles never trailed.
Clarkston coach Andy Auten took a gamble, bumping up several wrestlers in the Wolves’ lineup. The plan backfired.
“We tried bumping our guys up — and it did not work,” admitted Auten. “We thought we might win in the five (upper) weight classes and we only won one of them. We got the win at heavyweight. In order to beat them, we had to have all of those guys win (at 160 through 285). They got so many pins in the lower weights. We had to have the wins higher up to even it up and we didn’t.”
Clarkston (21-10) managed just one pin, that coming from Jeff Sloney (130), which helped the Wolves close to within 11-6. Nick Vandermeer followed with a decision at 135 to bring the score to 11-9.
Hartland responded with a 32-0 run to put the Wolves to bed.
In the semifinals against Adams, the Eagles opened with a 21-4 lead and were relentless in ousting the Highlanders.
Adams was making its first appearance in the regionals since 2001, but could not find any momentum against favored Hartland, which has reached the Final Four a total of four times in the past decade.
Austin Eicher (112), Boldt (119) and Justin Rollins (130) helped the Eagles with the early pins.
“To be honest, we just didn’t come ready to wrestle and Hartland did,” offered Adams coach Mike Holtz. “They got three pins in the first four matches. They had a bunch of guys that stepped up. We didn’t come ready to wrestle.
“I’m proud of my guys for getting to this point,” added Holtz. “But we needed to wrestle much better in order to have a chance.”
Adams was never able to stop the bleeding and failed to cut the deficit to under 15 points the rest of the way. The Highlanders won three of the final five weight classes to bring the final back down to 23 points.
In the other semifinal, Clarkston rolled over West Bloomfield 56-11. The Lakers had already lost to the Wolves by a similar score last month.
“We knew what we were up against,” said West Bloomfield coach Greg Alessi, whose squad finished a respectable 19-15. “We did a good job in winning our district. It was our first since 2006. But we knew that we didn’t have enough as the other teams in this regional.”
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BOX SCORES
HARTLAND 45, ROCHESTER ADAMS 20
(Regional semifinals at Hartland)
112: Austin Eicher (H) p. Stephen Biebelhausen 4:43; 119: Keith Boldt (H) p. Alex Potoniec 2:48; 125: Ros Kantola (H) d. Jack Addy 9-2; 130: Justin Rollins (H) p. Ryan Howcroft 1:47; 135: Andrew Sabuda (RA) d. Devon Chalut 11-8; 140: Mitchell Thomas (H) d. Kevin Jock 11-4; 145: Chase Snider (H) d. Dan McKay 7-3; 152: John Julien (H) tech. fall Ben Hart 17-2; 160: Mac Fisher (RA) p. Chad Maks 4:48; 171: Justin Charneski (H) p. Jordan Gowman 5-0; 189: Matt Ostermiller (H) maj. dec. Jack Sicheneder 9-0; 215: Paul Mikhjian (RA) p. Kevin Peters 0:56; 285: Phil Rowland (H) by void; 103: Justin Schofield (RA) maj. dec. Eric Lundwall 14-5.
RECORDS: Rochester Adams 24-5.
CLARKSTON 56, WEST BLOOMFIELD 11
(Regional semifinals at Hartland)
103: Bret Foltz (C) p. Drew Genrich 1:02; 112: Ross Bahro (WB) d. Raymond Wilkie 4-1; 119: Cameron Wilkie (C) d. Andrew Kas-Marogi 14-1; 125: Michael Cardinale (C) d. Mario Giglio 6-2; 130: Trace Williamson (WB) tech. fall Tyler Slating 16-1; 135: Jeff Sloney (C) d. Anthony Thompson 6-1; 140: Matt Vandermeer (C) maj. dec. Dan Davidson 8-0; 145: Kyle Broughton (C) p. Phil Grier 3:09; 152: Chris Calvano (C) p. John Hubbard 3:43; 160: Mike Henige (C) by void; 171: Matt Vandermeer (C) by void; 189: Dan Bahro (WB) d. Ethan Frick 9-7 (OT); 215: Mitchell Manns (C) p. Zach Root 1:46; 285: Scott Devos (C) d. Brandon Shaya 1:01.
RECORDS: West Bloomfield 19-15.
HARTLAND 48, CLARKSTON 15
(Regional finals at Hartland)
119: Ken Bolts (H) p. Cameron Wilkie 3:22; 125: Ross Kantola (H) tech. fall Mike Cardinale 16-0; 130: Jeff Sloney (H) p. Justin Rollins 4:46; 135: Nick Vandermeer (H) Anthony Colaianne 8-2; 140: Mitchel Thomas (H) p. Grant Ulrich 1:34; 145: Chase Snider (H) p. Kyle Broughton 29-9; 152: John Julien (H) by void; 160: Chad Hunt (H) d. Chris Calvano 4-0; 171: Justin Charneski (H) maj. dec. Mike Henige 8-0; 189: Matt Ostermiller (H) d. Matt Vandermeer 7-5; 215: Nick Long (H) d. Ethan Frick 12-3; 285: Scott DeVos (C) d. Phil Rowland 4-2; 103: Bret Foltz (C) d. Nate Hughes 7-5 (OT); 112: Austin Eicher (H) tech. fall Raymond Wilkie 15-0;
Category: Clarkston, Prep Wraps, Rochester Adams
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