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  • TC St. Francis' Haydn Wilson won by pin in Wednesday's district. Record-Eagle/Dennis Chase

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  • St. Francis' Eric Wales (gold) earned a 12-4 win over Mancelona's Matt Clarkson at 112 in the team district Wednesday. Record-Eagle/Dennis Chase

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February 9, 2012

Glads repeat as district champs

St. Francis wins 67-12 in finals

BY DENNIS CHASE dchase@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Now comes the difficult assignment.

St. Francis won its Division 4 district wrestling title Wednesday night, beating Elk Rapids 67-12.

Next up: No. 4 Shelby in a first-round regional match at Montabella next Wednesday. Shelby beat No. 3 Hesperia 36-26 to win the district at Montague.

The Gladiators did not wrestle Shelby during the season, but lost to Hesperia 46-25 last month at Rockford.

"The best thing we have going for us right now is that we're under the radar," said St. Francis coach Mike Simaz. "Everybody knows those teams (Shelby and Hesperia) because they're perennial powerhouses. We're only in our seventh year. They don't know anything about us."

The Gladiators won 12 of 14 weight classes in repeating as district champs. Seven of those wins were by pins — Alex Picardat at 189, Haydn Wilson at 215, Mike Ostrom at 125, Matt Mawby at 130, Ben Jamieson at 140, Isaiah Schaub at 145 and Nick Kester at 152. Jake Khoury at 285, Trica Martin at 103 and Zach Schaub at 119 won by void. Two matches went the distance. The Gladiators' Eric Wales won a 12-4 decision at 112 while Jack Jamieson pulled out a 5-4 decision over Marcus Shananaquet at 160 — the night's final and most intense match.

"We saw Shananaquet at the conference tournament (last weekend)," said Jamieson, who moved up in weight for the district. "He beat our guy at 160. I wanted to see if I could beat him. It was a real close match. He was heavy so my shots weren't working that well. I was worried."

Jamieson, a four-time Lake Michigan Conference champion, held on for the win.

"We wanted to give him a better match-up," said Simaz. "He (Shananaquet) was heavy and strong so he (Jamieson) kind of struggled. But you need those type of matches."

The Elks had two pins on the night — Kelly Lark at 171 and Kaid Brookshire at 135.

The Gladiators will now fine tune their weights for the regionals. Isiah Schaub, the defending state champion at 130, will wrestle at either 135 or 140 and Jack Jamieson will go down to 145.

Simaz is pleased with the progress of his team, which lost in the regionals a year ago. He's been particularly impressed with the development of his young wrestlers.

"Our young guys have come a long way," he said. "I think a few of them will make it to states this year. Zach Schaub, if he shows up on the right day, could win the whole thing. He's that talented."

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