Butch Harmon
Sports Scene
A pair of familiar rivals met in the finals of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) Division 1 team wrestling championship in Kalamazoo. Detroit Catholic Central and Davison have dominated Division 1 wrestling for the last several years and that domination continued at this year’s finals. In the end, Detroit Catholic Central was the last team standing as the Shamrocks defeated Davison 50-18 in the title match.
The D1 title was the third consecutive state title for the Catholic Central and the seventh D1 state title in the past nine years. Since 2017, either Detroit Catholic Central or Davison have won the D1 state title while one of the two teams has finished second five times since 2017. For Detroit Catholic Central, the title was the seventh since 2017 while Davison has won two Division 1 titles.
This year’s state final saw a close match in the early going before Detroit Catholic Central began to pull away.
Steve Vaughn staked Davison to an early lead with a pin at 113 pounds. Catholic Central then tied the dual when Ryan Totten delivered at pin for the Shamrocks at 120 pounds.
Catholic Central then surged ahead with a pair of wins in the next two matches. Wyatt Lees recorded a pin for the Shamrocks at 126 while Mack Moscovic of Catholic Central won by major decision at 132 pounds to put the Shamrocks up 16-6.
Davison trimmed the deficit to 16-12 at 138 pounds where Calvin Martz picked up a pin in less than a minute.
That was as close at the Cardinals would get, however, as Catholic Central wrestlers won the next three matches.
Grayson Fuchs started the run with a decision at 144 pounds. Alexander Buskirk followed with a major decision at 150 pounds for the Shamrocks and then Braxten Roche won by a decision at 157 pounds giving Catholic Central a 26-12 lead.
Davison stopped the run at 165 pounds. That was when Kyle Jelinek recorded a pin to cut the Catholic Central lead to 26-18.
The win by Jelinek was the final victory of the dual for Davison as Catholic Central closed out the dual by winning the next six matches.
Caden Krueger started the final run as he won a major decision at 175 pounds. Lee Krueger followed that with a decision at 190 pounds. At 215 pounds, Connor Bercume won by a technical fall.
Catholic Central then closed out the dual with a pair of pins. At heavyweight, Benny Eziuka won by a pin while Richard Mogle capped the dual by winning by pin at 106 pounds.
Catholic Central, which came into the finals as the number-one seed, opened the defense of their state title by defeating Romeo 64-5 in the quarterfinals. The Shamrocks then stopped Clarkston 39-25 in the semifinals.
Davison, the No. 3 seed at the finals, opened the finals with a 42-27 win against Rockford in the quarterfinals. The Cardinals then qualified for the finals by knocking off second-seeded Brighton 32-31 in a semifinal-round thriller.
The match ended in a 31-31 tie but Davison won the tiebreaker as the Cardinals on the most bouts, 8-6.
Davison was led in the semifinals by Kyle Jelinek (165 pounds), Dominic Perez (132) and Brandon Glisson (285) who all won by technical fall. Steve Vaughn (113) won by major decision while Calvin Martz (138), Tanner McDunnah (150), Julius Pacheco (157) and Cameron Savage (190) each won by decision.
Menu