Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
BATTLE CREEK — Championship wrestling programs always pride themselves on consistency.
No matter what 14 wrestlers they send to the mat, it must be a consistent championship effort each time.
That’s what makes the programs at Detroit Catholic Central, St. Johns, Richmond, and Hudson so special – they wrestle consistently until the last weekend of the season, and they consistently bring home championship trophies to their respective schools.
All four won titles this past weekend at the Michigan High School Athletic Association Team Wrestling Finals at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.
Detroit Catholic Central won its second Division 1 title in the past three years. St. Johns won its third straight Division 2 title, as did Richmond in Division 3. And Hudson has show the most consistency of the bunch, winning its fourth straight Division 4 title.
Hudson now joins Davison and Dundee as the only teams to win four or more straight team titles in the team format era.
“We are in really good company with Davison and Dundee,” Hudson coach Scott Marry said. “Our senior class, for them to come here four years and win four championship trophies, that definitely deserves some recognition.”
Hudson won the title by beating a game Shelby team 33-22.
“A lot ot guys might fold under the pressure of trying to four-peat,” Marry said. “But they didn’t, the guys wrestled the wrestlers in front of them all weekend and not the idea of four-peating.”
Detroit Catholic Central served up a little revenge, beating Oxford in the Division 1 final, 47-9. Last year Oxford beat the Shamrocks by a single point, or it may have been a three-peat in that division.
St. Johns, the third-ranked team in the nation, battled Lowell, also a top 50 team in the nation, in a match-up of arguably the two best teams in the state in all divisions. The Redwings beat Lowell 41-18 to make in three straight titles.
And in Division 3, Richmond won its third straight championship with a 34-23 win over Dundee, a team that has finished runner-up four of the past five years in the division.
“That’s awesome,” Richmond coach Brandon Day said of his team’s feat. “I am real proud of the kids; it was a total team effort all weekend. I am so proud of these seniors, four appearances down here, and three state championships.”