Greer, Tri-County Aim for Big 2016 Finish

January 1, 2016

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half

HOWARD CITY – Tri-County High School sophomore Dakota Greer remembers being soundly beaten by teammate Nick McGhan throughout their childhood.

The two began wrestling together before they could barely write their own names. McGhan always would have the upper hand on the mat over his younger friend.

“He was way better than me when we were little,” Greer said, “but him beating up on me made me better.”

As the years passed, they continued to grapple on a daily basis. Greer quickly improved. The matches became more even.

“It got to the point where we were wrestling nose-to-nose,” Greer said. “We made each other better.”

Greer and McGhan became high school teammates for the first time last season, and both made their marks on the biggest stage at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Greer became the first freshman in school history to win an MHSAA Individual Final when he defeated Corunna’s Emilio Campos 9-6 in the Division 3 championship match at 103 pounds.

Meanwhile, McGhan, a junior last season, lost in the semifinals at 112 pounds before recovering to take third place.

“It felt really good to be the first freshmen in school history to do that,” said Greer, who started wrestling when he was 4 and was inspired by his talented older twin cousins, former Carson City-Crystal standouts Darren and Dillen Decker.

“I always had big goals, and at the beginning I knew I had a little bit of a chance. But it wasn’t till later on when I realized I could do it.”

Greer finished the season with a 42-1 record, although he never really lost a match.

Midway through the season, Greer had appendix surgery and was forced to miss a few matches. During one dual meet, his coaches put him in the lineup thinking the other team would void at that weight.

Instead, the opposing coach opted to place a wrestler in the match. Greer lost on an injury default since he was unable to wrestle.

“Coach still called me undefeated,” Greer said.     

Tri-County wrestling coach Corey Renner, in his 10th season, said he wasn’t surprised by Greer’s rare feat. He had been standing by patiently for the time when Greer could showcase his abilities at the high school level.

“I’ve known him since fifth or sixth grade, and we’ve just been waiting for him to get to high school,” Renner said. “He beat a kid from Shelby early in the year, who at the time was the favorite to win it. He beat him pretty handily, and at that point I knew he could probably win it.

“You never know, though. Kids can get hurt or sick, and strange things can happen, but I felt like if everything went the way it should then he could win it. He’s dedicated, and he just does everything you ask and more.”

Greer and McGhan have returned for one more season together and are currently leading the 9th-ranked team in Division 3.

The Vikings entered this week’s Grandville Invitational with a perfect 9-0 mark, which included a win at Tri-County’s team invitational.

They also placed third at the Chippewa Hills individual tourney.

Greer has picked up where he left off. He currently owns an unblemished 11-0 record while moving up to 119 pounds.

“I still have a lot of goals I want to reach,” Greer said.

Tri-County hasn’t reached the MHSAA Team Quarterfinals since 2003, but this year’s team has the potential to break the dry spell with the return of several starters.

“This is the best team we’ve had in a long time,” Renner said. “We still have some holes to fill, but when we get everyone healthy and ready to go then we will be really tough.

“Whitehall is in our Regional, and they’re really good every year, but I think we can compete with them if we can get everybody where they need to be. We can give them a run for their money, that’s for sure.” 

Greer also likes this year’s group, and has high hopes for the rest of the season.

“We lost a couple good kids, but we still have a lot of good juniors and seniors and a couple freshmen and sophomores who are doing really good,” Greer said. “We have good kids all the way through so we should be strong for a while.”

PHOTOS: (Top) Howard City Tri-County's Dakota Greer prepares to take a shot during last season's Division 3 championship match at 103 pounds. (Middle) Tri-County coach Corey Renner is in his 10th season leading the program. (Click for more photos from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)

DCC Wins Power-Packed Rematch in D1

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

February 23, 2019

KALAMAZOO – Tony Greathouse has built one of the state’s elite wrestling programs at Brighton over the past six years. 

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the state’s most elite program currently resides in their division. 

Detroit Catholic Central defeated Brighton 34-19 on Saturday at Wings Event Center to claim its third straight Division 1 team wrestling title.  

“Especially this year, we took a big step up where we’re not just barely beating teams, we beat really good teams this year by 40 or 50,” Greathouse said. “Even this dual, even though we lost, the fact that we’re within 15 points of them – they might be the best team that’s ever come out of the state of Michigan. They’re pretty darn good.” 

Catholic Central (26-1) finished the decade with seven titles and one runner-up finish. It’s a feat no Division 1 team has ever accomplished.  

“You have to take your hats off to our guys; they work so hard,” said Shamrocks coach Mitch Hancock, who has led the program to each of those seven titles. “It’s not about me, it really isn’t. It’s about them and how hard they work. We have a standard at Catholic Central, and that standard is high. When you come to Catholic Central, you better be ready to work, you better be ready to perform in the classroom, pray to God and perform on the athletic field, and those guys live up to that standard every single day.” 

The Shamrocks rolled through the postseason, not giving up a team point through the District or Regional, and rolling to 63-6 (Clarkston) and 56-9 (Westland John Glenn) wins in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals. 

“We kind of look at it as, we don’t really have anything to prove,” Catholic Central senior Cameron Amine said. “We just have to keep getting better every day in the practice room and pushing each other in the practice room. And that nothing is ever given to us at all. You have to go out there and work for it and get it.” 

The dual started in the heart of Catholic Central’s lineup at 140 pounds, and the Shamrocks jumped out to a 29-3 lead despite it being a strong stretch of the Bulldogs’ lineup as well. 

Logan Sanom and returning Individual Finals champion Derek Gilcher each won major decisions at 140 and 145, respectively. Three-time individual champion Kevon Davenport won by decision for the Shamrocks at 152, followed by two-time champion Amine winning by major decision at 160.  

Brighton got on the board at 171, as River Shettler won by decision, but the Shamrocks rattled off four straight, starting with a decision from returning champion Easton Turner at 189. Brendin Yatooma (215) and Steven Kolcheff (285) also won by major decision, while Anthony Walker (103) won a decision. 

Brighton rattled off four straight wins from 112 through 130, getting a major decision from Mason Shrader, a pin from Sam Freeman and decisions from Ben Manly and Eddie Homrock.  

The Shamrocks closed the dual with another returning champion, Josh Edmond, winning by technical fall at 135. 

“We start at 140, good luck with that, right?” Hancock said. “You got Gilcher, Amine, Davenport, then you go up top to our big guys – we just put a lot of faith in our big guys up top. They’re just a really, really good team, and we were just a couple points better at every weight. To me, that’s just a level of toughness, a level of focus and just some conditioning.

“Hats off to Tony, he’s built a power over there at Brighton.” 

The matchups were ones Greathouse knew posed problems for his team coming in. 

“We knew coming in that we were going to have to win some matches that we probably weren’t supposed to win,” he said. “We were facing some pretty formidable opposition there. Overall, I thought we competed pretty hard, but they’re better than we are. We had to be better than them today, and we weren’t. We lost by 58 points to them last year in the state finals, today we lost by 15, so we made a 43-point improvement over the last 12 months, so I think that’s something to hang your hat on. We beat the Division 2 state champ (Lowell), we beat the Division 3 state champ (Dundee), so we had a pretty great season. I’m proud of them.” 

Hancock wasn’t just impressed with his stars, however, as his younger wrestlers came through for the team as well. 

“Anthony Walker I think was the key of the match, his big win down low,” Hancock said. “Logan Sanom, I’m not sure if people expected him to wrestle in that dual but he came out firing. Those two guys really stood out to me, and then up top Brendin Yatooma who beat (Luke) Stanton. Stanton is pretty dangerous on top, so for Yatooma to take him out the way he did was pretty cool.” 

Brighton defeated Davison 31-24 in the Semifinals, while Catholic Central defeated Westland John Glenn 56-9. 

Gilcher, Davenport, Amine, Turner, Yatooma, Kolcheff, Walker and Edmond each won three matches on the weekend for the Shamrocks, while Freeman and Homrock each won three matches for Brighton. 

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: (Top) Kevon Davenport was one of nine bout winners for DCC in the Division 1 Final on Saturday. (Middle) Brighton's Greyson Stevens, left, and DCC's Easton Turner wrestle at 189 pounds. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)