Preview: Lowell Seeks to Run Title Streak to Great 8
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 30, 2021
The success has become so familiar, and some of the names to match, it’s like Lowell has been sending out the same wrestlers the last eight years.
That’s not true or possible, of course. But more than a handful of current Red Arrows have played major roles in carrying on the program’s seven-year MHSAA Finals record championship streak.
Lowell is the top seed again as it seeks to make that eight in a row Tuesday at Wings Event Center. The Quarterfinal pairings are as follows:
Division 2 - 12:30 pm - The Arena
#1 Lowell vs. #8 Charlotte - Mat 2
#4 Monroe Jefferson vs. #5 Fremont - Mat 1
#3 Goodrich vs. #6 Warren Woods Tower- Mat 4
#2 Stevensville Lakeshore vs. #7 Allendale - Mat 3
Spectator limits remain in effect, but all matches will be broadcast live and viewable with subscription on MHSAA.tv. Below is a look at all eight teams competing in Division 2, listed by seed.
#1 LOWELL
Record/rank: 17-3, No. 1
League finish: First in Ottawa-Kent Conference White
Coach: R.J. Boudro, seventh season (134-21)
Championship history: Ten MHSAA championships (most recent 2020), six runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 119 Ramsy Mutschler (21-4) jr., 125 Landon Miller (10-5) soph., 130 James Link (17-6) jr., 135 Zeth Strejc (17-3) sr., 145 Will Link (21-3) sr., 145 Tacho Gonzales (19-6) fr., 160 Doak Dean (21-2) sr., 160 Carson Crace (17-4) soph., 171 Jacob Lee (18-1) sr., 189 Derek Mohr (19-2) sr., 215 Carter Blough (21-2) jr., 285 Keegan Nugent (24-0) sr.
Outlook: Lowell’s Finals-record championship streak is at seven straight titles and counting. Half of last season’s championship match lineup returns for a team that also starts half seniors. The Red Arrows defeated No. 4 Middleville Thornapple Kellogg 50-22 in the Regional Final. Strejc (130) and Nugent (215) were individual runners-up last season, while Will Link (fourth at 140), Dean (fifth at 160) and Lee (third at 171) also placed.
#2 STEVENSVILLE LAKESHORE
Record/rank: 18-0, No. 3
League finish: First in Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference
Coach: Bruce Bittenbender, 51st season (958-265-2)
Championship history: Class B runner-up 1994 and 1986.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Taylor Lucas (17-5) jr., 119 Cameron Litaker (19-3) jr., 125 Aaron Lucio (19-0) soph., 125 Kyle Stampfly (16-6) jr., 140 Micah Hanau (21-0) jr.
Outlook: Lakeshore is seeded to contend for its first championship match berth since 1994, which would be another achievement for Bittenbender – the winningest coach in MHSAA wrestling history. The Lancers sandwiched a 28-point District win over St. Joseph with a couple of postseason nail-biters, defeating Paw Paw by one and Edwardsburg by three points. Hanau is the reigning individual champ at 130, while Lucio was third at 119 last season and Litaker was sixth at 112.
#3 GOODRICH
Record/rank: 16-0, No. 6
League finish: First in Flint Metro League
Coach: Kenneth Sirignano, 11th season (record N/A)
Championship history: Two MHSAA championships (most recent 2009), three runner-up finishes
Individual Finals qualifiers: 112 Brody Orcutt (19-2) fr., 119 Heremius Cheff (16-3) soph., 125 Ryan Angelo (15-8) jr., 135 Carson Richards (18-2) jr., 140 Easton Phipps (16-3) fr., 152 Brady Benson (19-4) soph., 189 Cameron Macklem (15-5) jr., 215 Zach Schmitz (10-8) sr.
Outlook: Goodrich was runner-up as recently as 2019, when it fell to Lowell by only six points in the Final. The Martians didn’t make it to Quarterfinals last season but return for the fourth time in six seasons and with a starting lineup featuring 10 underclassmen. Richards finished sixth at 140 at the Individual Finals last season.
#4 MONROE JEFFERSON
Record/rank: 12-2, No. 5
League finish: First in Huron League
Coach: Mike Humphrey, 18th season (349-154)
Championship history: Has never appeared in an MHSAA Final.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Cody Richards (16-0) jr., 103 Issac Masserant (13-6) fr., 119 John Allen (14-2) soph., 125 Dylan Garcia (15-3) jr., 130 Hunter Major (16-3) sr., 135 Ethan Brabant (15-5) sr., 145 Seth Minney (14-5) soph., 152 Jac White (15-4) sr., 189 Brendan Bashaw (12-4) sr.
Outlook: Jefferson is making its second trip to the Quarterfinals and first since 1995. The Bears have won District titles three straight seasons, but their league title was the first since 2017. Ten upperclassmen bring experience to the starting lineup, with Richards a returning individual placer having come in sixth at 103 last season.
#5 FREMONT
Record/rank: 26-2, unranked
League finish: Second in Central State Activities Association
Coach: Craig Zeerip, seventh season (155-62)
Championship history: Has never appeared in an MHSAA Final.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 RJ Thome (31-0) jr., 112 Tee Ward (29-2) fr., 119 Eli Beasley (29-4) sr., 130 Trey Myers (26-4) fr., 160 Trey Breuker (30-2) sr., 189 Michael Romero (20-10) soph.
Outlook: Fremont reached the Quarterfinals last season for the first time, in Division 3, and repeated that achievement against larger competition this winter. The Packers have won all four of their postseason matches by at least 16 points. Thome was fifth at 103 last season, and Breuker was eighth at 152.
#6 WARREN WOODS TOWER
Record/rank: 13-8, No. 10
League finish: Third in Macomb Area Conference Red
Co-coaches: Greg Mayer, 21st season (402-258), Russell Correll, eighth season (165-62)
Championship history: Division 2 runner-up 2017.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Tyler Daniel (16-7) jr., 125 Joe Haynes (19-1) sr., 130 Dru Wilson (13-5) sr., 135 Gavin Shoobridge (16-2) sr., 140 Mathew Booth (12-8) sr., 140 Josh Howey (21-1) jr., 152 Dominic Johnson (14-9) sr.
Outlook: The Titans have now reached the Quarterfinals six straight seasons, this time rolling through with every postseason win by at least 36 points. They will miss junior two-time individual champ Omari Embree (171, 17-1), who is out for this weekend, but return another champ in Haynes, last season’s 119 title winner. Also placing last season were Daniel (eighth at 103), Howey (eighth at 125), Wilson (fifth at 130) and sophomore Ryan Radvansky (160, 16-4), who was eighth at 160.
#7 ALLENDALE
Record/rank: 22-7, unranked
League finish: First in O-K Blue
Coach: Duane Watson, 33rd season (682-259)
Championship history: Has never appeared in an MHSAA Final.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 112 Harrison Meekhof (27-6) fr., 112 Jack Guerrero (26-7) fr., 135 Cris Perez (23-5) sr., 152 Jordan Silva (21-13) sr.
Outlook: After two seasons away, Allendale is back at the Quarterfinals for the third time in five years and with a fifth-straight league title and 14th-straight District championship. The team has four Individual Finals qualifiers, but eight wrestlers have won at least 22 matches this abbreviated season. Perez finished eighth at 130 in 2020.
#8 CHARLOTTE
Record/rank: 18-8, unranked
League finish: Second in Capital Area Activities Conference White
Coach: Korey Knapp, fourth season (63-47)
Championship history: Class B champion 1968, runner-up 1965.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 119 Jayden Schwartz (22-4) soph., 140 Logan Haughton (25-3) jr., 152 Bo Brandt (24-8) sr.
Outlook: Charlotte is returning to the Quarterfinals for the first time since 1990, and second time in program history. The Orioles defeated perennial power Eaton Rapids to win their District, then upset another annual force in No. 7 Mason at the Regional. Charlotte has had individual standouts over the years – their lone individual qualifier last season won a championship – but this week will also see the Orioles send triple that number to the Individual Finals.
PHOTO: Will Link, right, works toward a pin during Lowell’s Semifinal win last season at Wings Event Center. (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.)