Division 3: Familiar Foes Face Off
February 21, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This Division 3 Finals weekend already looks familiar with five of last season's eight Quarterfinalists making the trip back to Battle Creek's Kellogg Arena.
And top seeds Dundee and Richmond are slated to meet again for the championship – like they did last season, two of the last three years and three of the last six.
Below is a look at all eight teams competing in Division 3, listed by seed. Their Quarterfinal matches begin at 1 p.m. Friday, with Semifinals at 9:30 Saturday morning and the championship match at 4 p.m. All matches this weekend will be streamed live on MHSAA.tv. For results throughout, check the MHSAA Wrestling page. Rankings below are from MichiganGrappler.com.
#1 DUNDEE
Record/rank: 20-2, No. 1
League finish: First in Lenawee County Athletic Association
Coach: Tim Roberts, 14th season (386-54-1)
Championship history: Six MHSAA championships (most recently 2007), five runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 285 John Marogen (37-7) sr., 103 Kenny Reinhart (31-14) soph., 112 Zach Blevins (33-12) fr., 125 Brendan O’Connor (39-7) jr., 135 Brad Scholl (22-5) jr., 140 Doug Rojem (47-1) jr., 140 Sean Marogen (28-16) jr., 152 Liam Grantham (31-3) sr., 160 Todd Olson (43-3) sr., 171 Tye Thompson (23-7) soph., 189 Teddy Warren (43-2) jr., 215 Jay Sroufe (28-7) sr.
Outlook: Dundee is making its 11th straight trip to Battle Creek and coming off its fourth-runner-up finish in five seasons. Nine wrestlers are back from last season’s championship match lineup, and Olson and John Marogen were individual runners-up last season. The Vikings beat No. 10 Manchester in the Regional on the way back to the Quarterfinals.
#2 RICHMOND
Record/rank: 24-4, No. 2
League finish: First in Blue Water Area Conference
Coach: Brandon Day, ninth season (304-63)
Championship history: Six MHSAA championships (most recently 2012), three runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Aaron Kilburn (36-7) fr., 119 Graham Barton (21-20) fr., 125 Austin Vannatter (33-14) soph., 130 Nick Burg (36-10) jr., 130 Alex Muzlajakovich (27-7) jr., 135 Austin Cattera (23-7) sr., 140 Nate Henke (37-6) sr., 145 Devin Skatzka (45-2) soph., 152 Dalton Yore (28-14) sr., 160 Jordan Adams (28-15) soph., 171 Austin Peltier (31-16) jr., 189 Jake McKiernan (45-5) jr., 215 Adam Boyd (31-14) soph.
Outlook: Aside from the retirement of coach George Hamblin – who led the team to all six of its MHSAA titles, the last four as co-coach with Day – this Richmond team looks a lot like the one that won its third-straight championship last winter. Again, the Blue Devils have 13 individual qualifiers, and all 14 starters have winnings records – with six more reserves who have won at least 20 matches apiece. Skatzka is the reigning individual champion at 135 pounds.
#3 WHITEHALL
Record/rank: 25-0, No. 3
League finish: First in West Michigan Conference
Coach: Cliff Sandee, sixth season (148-25)
Championship history: MHSAA runner-up in 1984.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 285 Logan Morningstar (42-4) sr., 103 Reiley Brown (44-4) fr., 112 Logan Irey (42-9) sr., 125 Zach Cooper (50-0) sr., 145 Dakota Hoffman (32-16) jr., 160 Steven Sika (47-3) sr., 171 Joe Sika (45-2) sr., 215 Hunter Shaw (22-7) jr.
Outlook: After entering as the number six seed last season, Whitehall has moved into the top half for this weekend. The Vikings beat both No. 4 Grand Rapids Catholic Central and No. 8 Allendale at the Regional after defeating No. 5 Shelby in the District Final. Zack Cooper and Joe Sika are ranked number one in their respective weight classes and are two of eight senior starters.
#4 BIRCH RUN
Record/rank: 27-3, No. 7
League finish: First in Tri-Valley Conference East
Coach: Bart Bennett, fifth season (137-20)
Championship history: Has never finished among the top two teams in Finals competition.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 112 Kyle Kelsey (32-12) sr., 119 Jerry Fenner (51-3) soph., 125 Adam Bishop (37-7) sr., 130 Damian Johnson (50-4) sr., 140 Ean Taylor (24-10) fr., 140 Lake Bennett (50-6) sr., 145 Mitch Franklin (43-11) jr., 152 Jared Elliott (44-7) jr.
Outlook: Make that three league, four District and two Regional championships over the last four seasons for Birch Run, which beat No. 9 Saginaw Swan Valley at the Regional last week. Fenner, Johnson, Bennett and Elliott all are ranked among the top four in their respective weight classes. Bennett and Johnson are two of nine senior starters total.
#5 REMUS CHIPPEWA HILLS
Record/rank: 26-4, No. 6
League finish: Tied for first in Central State Activities Association
Coach: Nate Ethridge, 13th season (381-79)
Championship history: Has never finished among the top two teams in Finals competition.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Richie Ostrander (50-6) jr., 112 Zach King (48-5) jr., 119 Johnny Lynch (43-5) sr., 130 Joe Coleman (38-14) sr., 135 Kevin Briscoe (41-13) soph., 152 Jason Peacock (51-1) sr., 215 Cole Thielen (45-11) sr.
Outlook: The Warriors are back in the Quarterfinals for the sixth time in eight seasons, and this time the lineup features six wrestlers with at least 40 wins. Chippewa Hills tied for first in its league with Hesperia, the second-seeded team in Division 4. Peacock is ranked fifth at his weight and should contend for a championship next weekend as well.
#6 PARCHMENT
Record/rank: 34-1, unranked
League finish: Second in Kalamazoo Valley Association
Coach: Tom DeRyder, fifth season (91-62)
Championship history: Has never finished among the top two teams in Finals competition.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 119 Andy Caffrey (49-0) sr., 145 Steven Rantz (48-7) jr.
Outlook: After finishing 5-24 in DeRyder’s first season, Parchment has increased its win total every winter over the last four and become a contender in the same league as Division 4 power Constantine. Caffrey is the top-ranked wrestler at his weight in this division, and six others have won at least 40 matches this season.
#7 GLADSTONE
Record/rank: 12-0, unranked
League finish: Second in Great Northern UP Conference
Coach: Jesse DeBacker, third season (32-9)
Championship history: MHSAA Upper Peninsula champion 1987, two UP runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 285 Tom Bailey (32-7) jr., 112 James Bruce (31-10) fr., 125 Jared Syverson (20-11) jr., 130 Bobby Beauchamp (21-12) fr., 145 Josh Kadish (24-5) sr., 171 Jake Cronick (28-10) soph., 189 Jack Cronick (31-8) jr.
Outlook: Gladstone owns District championships from all three seasons under DeBacker, and also claimed the final championship of the Upper Peninsula-only tournament that ended after the 1986-87 season. Kadish and Jake Cronick both are ranked among the top 10 in their respective weight classes.
#8 BELDING
Record/rank: 17-8, unranked
League finish: Third in O-K Blue
Coach: Travis Meyer, fifth season (89-52)
Championship history: MHSAA runner-up 1988.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 112 Nate Cooley (29-15) soph., 125 Jesse Scheidel (36-7) soph., 152 Michael Walker (34-12) soph., 189 Neil McCully (38-10) jr., 215 Todd Haller (35-6) sr.
Outlook: After beating both of its District opponents by at least 28 points apiece, Belding edged its Regional opponents by two and one point, respectively, for its first trip to Battle Creek under Meyer. Haller and McCully both are ranked among the top 10 in their respective weight classes.
PHOTO: Dundee's Teddy Warren (right) wrestles with Richmond's Eric Boyd during last season's Division 3 Final at Kellogg Arena. Warren is back this winter. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Champion Teammates Harber, Bernard Spark Montrose's Mat Resurgence
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 9, 2022
Levi Harber was ecstatic Saturday after winning his own Individual Wrestling Finals title.
But when his Montrose teammate Aidan Bernard won about an hour later, Harber’s excitement spilled into raw emotion.
“So, me and Aidan, ever since way back, we’ve been wrestling together,” Harber said. “... For me to do it, that meant that he had to do it, too. It was weird. I couldn’t celebrate unless I knew my partner in crime did it, too. The reason I was so emotional was that the kid works so hard. Aidan works so hard. He wanted it so bad.”
Harber won the Division 3 285-pound title at Ford Field, and Bernard won at 135 pounds. Following Bernard’s win, the two seniors shared a tearful embrace, celebrating a moment that gave Montrose multiple champions for the first time since 2006, when the Rams were among the most dominant teams in the state.
Their accomplishment wrapped up careers that included a combined six all-state finishes and saw Montrose advance to the Team Quarterfinals four times.
“That group, as a whole, was pretty special,” Montrose coach Jason Perrin said. “I don’t know if it would be as fitting if that group left us and didn’t have a couple top-of-the-podium guys. When that group came in as freshmen, they were the two that led the way right out of the gate. Those two definitely highlighted that class, so it definitely was fitting.”
Harber won his Finals title with a second-period pin, while Bernard won his Finals match 8-1.
They had the same goal heading into this season, but were coming at it from different angles.
Football is where Harber’s future lies, as he has signed to play at Vanderbilt. He decided as a sophomore that’s what he wanted to do, but that didn’t detract from his work as a wrestler. He simply just worked.
Harber’s daily routine includes waking up and going to the weight room by 3:30 a.m., and when the pandemic didn’t allow him to do so, he was able to get some of the equipment from the school and work out at home.
And even after he signed, he continued to put that effort into both sports, something his Vanderbilt coaches appreciated.
“Division I coaches love wrestlers,” Harber said. “They love multi-sport athletes, so when I told the coaches that I was a wrestler, they loved it. Because, wrestling is different. It’s not only difficult to do, it’s mentally hard. Football coaches are looking for kids who are not only physically strong, but mentally strong, and wrestling makes mentally-strong people.”
Harber entered the season having taken third as a sophomore and second as a junior. His ambition to win it all only increased when he realized that nobody from Montrose had ever done it at heavyweight.
“He brought it to my attention, and I was like, ‘No, you’re wrong,’” Perrin said. “We have a wall in our wrestling room with all our state placers. I went into the room one day and looked at it and was like, ‘Dang, he’s right.’”
Bernard also plays football for the Rams, but his love is wrestling. He plans to wrestle in college and has offers, but has not made a public commitment.
After taking third as a sophomore and fourth as a junior, he dedicated his offseason to getting over the hump and standing at the top of the podium.
“Last year really made me want it the most,” Bernard said. “Coming in as the No. 1 seed and taking fourth, I was hungry. I was really putting in a lot of work, because I had one more shot.”
His offseason included a trip to Virginia Beach, and while wrestling a New Jersey state champion there, he injured his knee. He was told it was his ACL, but nothing that would require surgery.
Bernard took a week off before competing in the Disney Duals. He played through the injury during football season and wrestled through it in the winter. While he wore a brace, he said it wasn’t an issue – until the Finals. Twice in his victory Saturday, Bernard had to take injury time because of his knee. Afterward, he would say that nothing – not the knee, not even a broken bone – would stop him from finishing the match.
“To be quite honest, I don’t really know if I asked or knew the extent to which he was injured,” Perrin said. “Every time I turned around, he was still doing this or that – he played football. When he took the first injury time, obviously I was concerned, but I knew it was something that he’s going to be able to battle through because he has all year. When he took the second, we were concerned, but my mind immediately went to he can’t take a third, because then he’s done. We were definitely making sure that he knew to hustle back to the center.”
Bernard made his road to the championship match look easy, with a 6-0 victory followed by a pair of pins. But he accomplished it against a returning Finals champion and two other placers, including one who had defeated him twice the year before.
“I remember I told (Perrin) specifically, ‘You have to beat them all, or you can’t win the title,’” Bernard said. “That was my main thought the whole time. No matter who I came up against, if I couldn’t beat that person, I couldn’t win the title.”
Getting Montrose back to its early-2000s heights is a tall task. The Rams won team titles in 2003 and 2004 and had 10 individual champions from 2003-06. But thanks to the Class of 2022, it’s closer than it’s been in a decade.
Harber and Bernard are at the center of that, and according to Harber, it can be drilled down even further.
“It was Aidan Bernard,” Harber said. “That was our team captain. If I had to have one man on that team command the ship, it’d be Aidan. He showed up to practice on the worst of days and the best of days, and he was always setting the tempo for the rest of us.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Levi Harber’s arm is raised in victory Saturday after his Division 3 championship win at 285 pounds. (Middle) Harbor and teammate Aidan Bernard hold up their charts after claiming titles at Ford Field. (Below) Bernard works to take his opponent to the mat. (Action photos by HighSchoolSportsScene.com; middle photo courtesy of the Montrose wrestling program.)