Lowell Sets Record With 6th Straight Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 23, 2019
KALAMAZOO – Jeff Leach was in a familiar place as he stepped onto the mat with a chance to clinch the MHSAA Division 2 wrestling team title for Lowell.
In 2017, Leach clinched the Red Arrows’ fourth straight title with a decision against Warren Woods-Tower. And Saturday, he did it again, defeating Goodrich’s Carson Turnbow 9-2 to give Lowell a 29-23 victory and a state-record sixth straight MHSAA Finals team championship.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” Leach said. “Coaches were talking to me before because I was pacing back and forth with my nerves, but they reminded me, ‘Surrender the outcome. No matter what happens, put it all right where you got it, right here on the big stage.’ It’s my last time wrestling here, my last time wrestling a high school state, so I thought I might as well do it for them so they can keep the tradition going after I’m gone.”
Prior to Saturday, Lowell was one of four Lower Peninsula teams to have won five straight titles, joined by Hudson (2009-13), Davison (2002-06) and New Lothrop (1984-88). Escanaba won six straight Upper Peninsula titles from 1976-81. (The tournament was unified in 1988.)
Now the Arrows stand alone as the only program to accomplish the feat with the entire state competing together.
“Wrestling is a difficult sport,” Lowell coach R.J. Boudro said. “We have to take care of these kids’ weights, their grades, making sure they’re not injured, just making sure they’re mentally there – their girlfriend breaks up with them – so many things that could go wrong. To think of all those things that could go wrong, and we won six in a row, it’s just an amazing feat. I’m proud of the community, proud of the kids – it’s so cool.”
Four of the previous five titles for Lowell were decided by 10 points or more, and wrapped up prior to the final match – in some cases, well before. Only the 2014 title was decided by fewer points than this year, as the Red Arrows started their streak with a 35-34 win against the previous Division 2 power, St. Johns.
“Goodrich is a heck of a team,” Boudro said. “They brought everything they had. I feel like through the year, they were kind of working their lineup down to beat us. It kind of gave us motivation. Our guys showed up, and we had plenty of opportunities to win the dual in a lot of different ways, but I think we wanted to give the fans something to get a little nervous. They’re spoiled fans.”
Each team won seven matches in the dual, but Lowell was able to get a technical fall from Avry Mutschler at 140, a pin from Nicholas Kohorn at 112 and a forfeit to Austin Boone at 160. Goodrich, meanwhile, was only able to get bonus points at two weight classes, major decisions from Honour Kline at 215 and Cameron Macklem at 119.
“I think the worst part about it is that we wrestled so well and tough and we came up short,” Goodrich coach Kenneth Sirignano said. “That’s the worst part. To come that close and come up short – we did that in 2016, we did it again today, and that’s the worst part of it. They should have been rewarded for what they did, but that’s life and that’s a life lesson. They’ve really learned a lot this year, and I’m really proud of them. I just wish they could have had it.”
Lowell went up 17-0 in the dual, getting decisions from James Fotis at 145 and Doak Dean at 152, along with Mutschler and Boone’s wins. Goodrich stormed back, however, winning the next four matches, as Kline’s major decision was surrounded by decisions from Juwan Vines at 171, James Penfold at 189 and Blake Coffell at 285. Vines won on a last-second throw, while Coffell won in double overtime.
“We pulled a lot of upsets, and we just tried to give ourselves the best shot to win,” Sirignano said. “The guys came through, and they won a lot of big matches. I would say they won five big matches.”
Lowell’s Ramsy Mutschler won by decision at 103, and that, combined with Kohorn’s pin, gave the Arrows a 26-13 lead with four matches to go.
The Martians won the next three, as Macklem’s major decision was followed by decisions from Carson Richards at 125 and Caleb Teague at 130. That set up the dramatic final match.
“We draw a weight class (to start the dual) an hour before, they drew 140 and I was like (yes),” Boudro said. “Two years ago, we beat Tower and it came down to him and he pulled it out. He’s got a lot to talk about for the rest of his life, being able to say he won two state titles in the last match of the dual. It’s pretty cool.”
Leach got out to a 5-0 lead in the match and had to hold off a pair of throws from Turnbow, rolling through one headlock that nearly put him to his back.
“It was more of a reaction,” Leach said. “My (practice) partners, some of them throw really good headlocks, so over the years, I’ve been pretty much practicing how to defend a headlock over and over.”
Lowell advanced to the Final with a 34-24 win against Gaylord in the Semifinals, while Goodrich defeated DeWitt 37-22.
Both Mutschlers and Fotis won three matches on the weekend for Lowell, while Vines, Penfold, Kline, Coffell, Macklem and Teague each won three matches for Goodrich.
PHOTOS: (Top) Ramsy Mutschler earned a key championship match win for Lowell at 103 pounds. (Middle) Wrestlers lock up during the Division 2 Final. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Lowell Enters Another Elite Group of Champs with 11th-Straight Finals Win
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 24, 2024
KALAMAZOO – There’s nothing quite like the roar of a crowd after your team has clinched an MHSAA Team Wrestling Finals title.
That’s true whether it’s for title No. 1, or, in the case of Casey Engle and his Lowell teammates Saturday, for their program’s 11th-straight Division 2 championship.
“It’s unreal,” Engle said. “It’s something I look forward to every year.”
Lowell extended its record run of wrestling team titles by defeating Freeland 49-21 in the Division 2 Final at Wings Events Center.
The Red Arrows joined the Grosse Pointe South (1976-86) and Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett (1980-90) girls tennis programs in winning 11 straight Finals titles. Only East Grand Rapids boys swimming & diving, winning 15 straight from 1948-62, and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice boys lacrosse – with 13 straight from 2005-17 – have longer Finals championship streaks in Lower Peninsula or statewide competition.
“I mean, it’s possible (to reach 15),” said sophomore Jarrett Smith, whose pin at 106 pounds clinched the title. “It’s hard to predict that far, four years into the future. We’re losing some key guys, but we graduated 14 last year, five this year, so we’re returning some firepower.”
Lowell is always returning firepower, and it’s consistently adding it, too, giving new waves of Red Arrows the chance to raise a wooden mitten.
That’s why for coach RJ Boudro, each title remains just as sweet as the last.
“Why would it get old?” said Boudro, who has been in charge for 10 of those titles. “Look at the crowd. When I first walked in here, I looked up, and you see that we have more fans here than anybody else, and that’s what it’s about. Next year will be fun, too. When you can still bring crowds in and you can do it 11 years in a row, there’s more to that than just winning. If it was just about winning, why else would they come? They would probably think it was a foregone conclusion. They love the kids; they love the community.”
One could forgive an outsider for believing it’s a foregone conclusion when Lowell takes the mat for the Division 2 postseason, as it’s won the Final by more than 20 points in each of the past five seasons and in seven of its 11 straight championship victories.
So to avoid that feeling creeping into his wrestling room, Boudro makes it clear the Red Arrows’ responsibility isn’t just to win on the mat, but to strive for something bigger.
“We’re not doing it to just win state championships,” Boudro said. “We’re trying to find out who we are, we’re trying to be better men, better women, better coaches. So, it’s not just about winning, it’s about being a better person. Whether I’m a coach or a kid, just trying to find a way to be better. When you’re doing that all the time, you get better, but you feel like you have a purpose. Every single guy on the team feels like they have a purpose, and that’s really important.”
Just 14 wrestlers can step onto the mat in a single dual, and the same number is the max a team can enter into the individual postseason, so accomplishing that can sometimes be as tough as anything else for Lowell wrestlers, and certainly helps motivate them throughout the season – foregone conclusions or not.
“One of our signs up there I saw, it says, ‘Tradition never graduates,’ and it’s true,” Smith said. “We just keep the kids coming. Even our B Team, C Team are competing at the highest level. At the beginning of Districts, we had 17 ranked guys, and you can only send 14. So we have just great partners all around.”
Freeland, meanwhile, was making its first appearance in a Final, after getting to the Quarterfinals for the third time in program history.
“Outstanding. Outstanding. They’ve been giving their all every match,” Freeland coach Scott VanLuven said. “They’ve been doing it all year. We beat Brighton, we weren’t supposed to. We beat (Bay City) John Glenn in our conference, then we had to beat them again in our District Final when we weren’t supposed to. No one gave us really a chance down here, I think. But they believed, and they did well.”
The Falcons (25-3) still had a shot with three matches to go, trailing 31-21. But Smith put a quick end to that with his pin at 106, and that was followed by a pair of pins from Cole and Carter Cichocki at 113 and 120, respectively.
Of the Arrows’ nine wins in the dual, eight came by either pin or technical fall, as Jackson Blum (138), Jared Boone (165) and Engle (190) also won by pinfall. Logan Dawson (132) and Owen Segorski (144) each won by tech. Cody Foss (126) opened the dual with a win by decision for Lowell (22-3).
Fabian Facundo (150) and Bringham Smith (285) each won by pin for Freeland, while Noah Graham (157), Gibson Shepard (175) and Elijah Murphy (215) all won by decision.
PHOTOS (Top) Lowell’s Cole Cichocki, left, lines up against Freeland’s Michael Wilson at 113 pounds Saturday. (Middle) The Falcons’ Elijah Murphy, left, locks up Lowell’s Ari McFarland at 215. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)