Lowell 'Mighty' Again in 5th Straight Title Win
February 24, 2018
By Butch Harmon
Special for Second Half
KALAMAZOO – They begin their wrestling careers as little wrestlers in superhero costumes.
A little over a decade later they are dressed in the wrestling singlet of the Lowell Red Arrows and making wrestling history in the state of Michigan.
On Saturday, for the fifth consecutive year, Lowell won the Division 2 team wrestling championship – this time 43-17 over Gaylord in the title match at the Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo.
Lowell became the first Division 2 team to win five consecutive team titles, and the Red Arrows joined Davison and Hudson as the only programs in MHSAA history, regardless of division or class, to earn the accomplishment.
“This is a major feat,” Lowell coach R.J. Boudro said. “People just expect we can win the state title every year. It’s a difficult thing to do just one year.
“Of all five of our titles we won, we faced the same team just once. So much goes into winning a state championship. I don’t think people realize everything that goes into winning a championship.”
In Lowell, the seeds for a MHSAA title are sewn every year at the youth level, with those athletes nurtured on the up the ladder as they point toward eventually competing for the varsity.
Lowell junior Avry Mutschler is one of the many Lowell wrestlers who grew up in the program.
“I was in the seventh grade when Lowell won the title five years ago,” said Mutschler, who won a decision at 140 pounds in Saturday’s Final. “I was sitting up there in the stands with all the other youth wrestling guys. Our youth program is just awesome.
“The very first youth league is the Mighty Arrows,” Mutschler added. “You start at age 4 or below. We wore Batman or Superman costumes and would learn to wrestle and play games at practice. I started in the Mighty Arrows with so many of my teammates, and we’ve all grown up together.”
Those little Mighty Arrows have grown up to be pretty strong Red Arrows. Not only was the title the fifth in a row for Lowell, but it was the eighth team title in school wrestling history.
Lowell senior Dave Kruse has been a part of the past four.
“Only two other teams have won five in a row,” Kruse said. “I am so happy to have been a part of these teams. As a senior, I’m also so thankful for the sport of wrestling and what it’s gave me.”
Kruse teamed up with fellow senior Austin Engle to win the final two matches of the dual. Lowell was up 34-17 when Engle battled back from a 5-2 deficit with 30 seconds remaining in the third period to claim a 7-5 win at 171 pounds. Kruse then won his match by injury default, giving the Red Arrows the 43-17 win.
“Our coaching staff tells us to never yield,” Engle said. “They tell us to go and wrestle hard at practice every day, and if we wrestle the Lowell way everything will be fine. In the third period when I was down by however much, I just kept hearing ‘never yield’ in my head.”
The Blue Devils (37-2) were making their first appearance in an MHSAA Team Finals championship match. The third seed entering the weekend, they upset second seed Warren Woods Tower in Saturday’s earlier Semifinal to advance.
But along with never yielding, Lowell never trailed in the match. The Red Arrows jumped out to a 13-0 lead as Keigan Yuhas opened the dual with a pin at 215 pounds. Tyler Deloof followed with a decision at heavyweight, and Nick Korhorn won a major decision at 103 pounds to put the Red Arrows up 13-0.
Gaylord rallied with wins in the next three matches to cut the Red Arrows’ lead to one point. Blue Devils sophomore Chayse LaJoie recorded a pin at 112 pounds, Derek Giallombardo followed with a decision at 119 pounds and John Henry Sosa added a decision at 125, cutting the margin to 13-12.
That was as close as Gaylord would get, as top-seeded Lowell (20-4) reeled off wins in the next five matches. Jeff Leach started the streak with a pin at 130 pounds, and freshman Doak Dean won a decision at 135. Mutschler picked up his decision at 140 pounds, followed by a major decision from James Fotis and a technical fall by sophomore and reigning Individual Finals champion Austin Boone at 152 pounds.
Kenny Smith of Gaylord picked up a technical fall at 160 pounds before Engle and Kruse closed out the dual for the Red Arrows.
“Each one of the five teams that won it are unique,” Boudro said. “When we went up there to take the team picture, that is the last time this group will all be together. This is pretty special.”
Click for full results of the weekend's Division 2 matches.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lowell coach R.J. Boudro and his team celebrate a match win during Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) Gaylord’s Chayse LaJoie works toward a pin at 112 pounds. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Midland Heroes Win 'Match of Life' In Saving Another On Way to Regional
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 22, 2023
Wilson Shinske woke up Saturday hoping to accomplish something great.
But the Midland senior had no idea just how great and impactful his accomplishment would be, and that it would happen well before he stepped on a wrestling mat.
On the way to the Division 1 Wrestling Regional at Hartland, Shinske and his dad, Steve, pulled a man from a burning vehicle on I-75 and helped resuscitate him on the side of the road. As the man was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, the Shinskes got back in their own vehicle and made it to the meet in time for weigh-ins.
“The entire way there, I was thinking, ‘It doesn’t matter if I lose or if I win today, this was a win,’” Wilson Shinske said. “Being on the wrestling team is about being part of something bigger than yourself. Yeah, I lost both of my matches, and it was like that journey has ended. But knowing what I did earlier, I won the match of life.”
Shinske finished his wrestling season with a 21-11 record after dropping his pair of Regional matches at 215 pounds. While all of that was certainly important to him, and the end of any senior season can be tough, the events of Saturday morning put a lot of things in perspective.
“I can tell you that I was proud as hell of him,” Steve Shinske said. “I was super proud of how he handled the morning. I was proud – I’m always proud of him when he does a sport, even when he thinks he doesn’t do well. When he lost, I saw him take those losses on Saturday differently than he had in the past in some of those situations. I think he had a different mindset. After he lost the second match, he went over and sat by a wall, and there were some tears shed. There were a ton of emotions, and not just wrestling emotions.”
Wilson Shinske’s day had started like hundreds of wrestlers around the state, as he left Midland around 5:30 a.m. focused on advancing to the MHSAA Individual Finals at Ford Field.
He fell asleep during the ride, but when the car started to slow down well before he thought it should, he knew something was off.
After coming over the Zilwaukee Bridge, Steve Shinske noticed a car fire ahead. As they approached, the retired Midland fireman decided he would stop and see how he could help, figuring he would see someone outside of the vehicle.
What he saw, however, was the driver slumped over in the front seat of the pickup truck. He pulled to the side of the road, and as he made his way to the truck, so did Wilson, who had now woken up from his pre-meet nap.
“It was 75 at 6 a.m. on a Saturday with no traffic; there’s no way we should be slowing down,” Wilson remembered. “As soon as he put it in park, not even a second later, I’m out of the car.”
As the Shinskes got to the vehicle, Steve noticed the driver – whose name they would later learn is Jerry – still had his foot crammed on the accelerator. That left the rear tires spinning until the tires had burned off and the rims were grinding on the pavement, which caused the fire at the back of the truck. His first move was to put the car in park and shut it off.
They removed Jerry – who they determined was not breathing and did not have a pulse – from the truck, and then Wilson’s training kicked in.
Wilson – a three-sport athlete who carries a 3.8 GPA – plans to study nursing in college, and spends much of his school day working in a hospital as part of a co-op. He’s CPR-certified and plans to work in the ER or a trauma unit.
A point of emphasis in Wilson’s training is to assess the situation in an emergency.
“The car is on fire, the gas tank is in the back of the car, we need to get him away from this,” Wilson said. “We need to get him up in front of our car – put a barrier between us to protect us if something happened. I don’t think there were really any nerves, just more fight or flight. I’m not running away, I’m fighting this. I wasn’t concerned with how cold it was – I wasn’t dressed for 20-degree weather – it was, ‘We have a problem here, let’s fix this problem.’”
Steve started CPR on Jerry while Wilson went back to see if they could find any personal information about him that would help, and 9-1-1 was called.
An off-duty paramedic then arrived on the scene, and put in a call to her supervisor for more assistance. That’s when Wilson took over CPR, and Steve went to put out the fire using snow from the median.
When the supervisor arrived, he brought out an AED to deliver a shock to Jerry’s heart. After some more CPR, Jerry took a gasp of air, and the monitor showed that there was heart activity.
“Then the cavalry came,” Steve said of the rush of emergency vehicles on the scene. He borrowed a fire extinguisher from a police officer to put out the remaining flames, and Jerry was loaded into an ambulance. Wilson said he could see Jerry taking breaths as he was being put into the ambulance.
The whole situation took about 15 to 20 minutes.
“Wilson’s played a lot of sports – football, tennis, he’s wrestled since he’s been 6, he plays golf – he understands that sports gives you perseverance, it gives you a different mindset,” Steve said. “I bet anybody that he works with on the floor at the hospital will tell you that he’s the most outgoing, go-getter co-op student they’ve had. Those things in his life helped him in that situation.”
Jerry survived, and the Shinskes went to visit him in the hospital Monday. While there, they learned from the family that the fire had started to melt the gas tank before Steve was able to put it out. They also learned that Jerry’s wife had recently passed away, and that their quick action had prevented his family from adding another layer of grief in a very short time.
“I love watching (Wilson) wrestle, and I’m going to miss watching him wrestle,” Steve Shinske said. “But watching him on I-75 on Saturday morning was almost better than watching him wrestle. He, as a young man, as a person that’s getting ready to go into the next phase of his life, to be able to handle something like that and not miss a beat was special.”
For Wilson, the experience further cemented his chosen career path, and desire to help others.
“I want to be a part of saving lives more often,” he said. “Not that I want to see people in these situations, but I want to help them when they are.”
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) From left: Wilson Shinske, Jerry and Steve Shinske meet Monday, two days after the father and son helped save Jerry’s life on I-75. (Middle) Wilson Shinske, far right, has his arm raised in victory after a match. (Photos courtesy of the Shinske family, with permission.)