Page 12 — Thursday, February 3, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
Saxons look for third straight title in I-
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
The Saxon wrestlers continued their win-
ning streak in the Interstate-8 Athletic Confer-
ence on Wednesday (Jan. 26) dominating
Parma Western 46–19 on the mat at Hastings
High School.
Both teams were undefeated in conference
duals heading into the evening.
Hastings head coach Jason Slaughter said,
“it’s always fun getting to wrestle under the
lights in front of the home crowd. It makes it
more exciting being that we were both 6-0 in
the I-8 going into the dual. We knew that they
would be tough but the team did really well.
We won ten out of 14 match ups. Winning sets
us up nice for the I-8, but we still have to get
the job done Saturday.”
The Interstate-8 Athletic Conference Tour-
nament will be at Hastings High School this
Saturday, with the Saxons pushing for their
third consecutive conference title. They go into
the tournament with the lead thanks to their 7-
performance in conference duals.The large crowd last Wednesday brought an
extra layer of excitement. The dual started with
a win for the Panthers at 189-pounds when
Aiden Duncan had a 9-6 decision over Hast-
ings’ Blake Barnum. Freshman Isaac Friddle
came out and put the Saxons back in the lead
with a pin, but then Parma took the heavy-
weight match on a 8-0 major decision putting
them back in the lead 7-6, before the Saxons
started a run at 103-pounds. Saxons took the
next four matches with a pin from freshman
Troy Hokanson, a major decision by Dillon
Neal (18-5), a 6-4 decision by Zach Chipman,
and then a 2-1 decision by Colton Smith.
Those wins moved the Saxons into a 22-7 lead.
The Panthers pulled out a pin in the third
period at both 130 and 145-pounds, but the
Saxons had a 6-2 decision win at 135-pounds
for Hayden Simmet and an 11-5 decision at
140-pounds for Cohen Smith for a 28-19 lead.
The Saxons clinched their victory scoring
pins in the next three matches from three of
their captains Mason Denton at 152-pounds,
Robby Slaughter at 160 and Victor Ramirez at
171 to end the dual 46-19.
The win for Robby Slaughter marked his
100th varsity win for the Saxons. Coach Jason
Slaughter said, “Robby had a good match.
Proud of him for his 100th win. It’s a tough
thing to do as a junior especially considering
he had a shortened season last year as a sopho-
more.”
The Hastings wrestlers traveled to Forest
Hills Northern on Saturday. The Saxons wres-
tled their way to another team trophy after a
5-0 day. Hastings defeated Forest Hills Eastern
in the first round, 60-12, and then made quick
work of Ottawa Hills with an 81-0 shut out
over the Bengals.
Round three was the toughest match up ofthe day with an exciting victory over home
team Forest Hills Northern, who finished the
day 4-1. Coach Slaughter said, “it was an excit-
ing match against Northern. It was exciting
seeing how our guys got fired up for the middle
of the day non-conference dual and showed
how all competition is important to them.”
The Huskies took the lead with a pin at
145-pounds to start the dual. The Saxons
returned the pin with a fall by Robby Slaughter
in the third period over Huskie, James Harvey,
and then a forfeit at 160-pounds for Bodey
Jacobs. The Saxons lost the next two matches
and were down 18-12.
Hastings then took the next three matches
with a 13-11 overtime win for Friddle at
215-pounds, and two pins at heavyweight and
103-pounds by Jackson Dubois and Hokanson,
to put the Saxons up 27-18. However, the Hus-kies then took the next two matches to tie the
dual up at 27-27. The Saxons and Huskies
exchanged decisions at 119 and 125-pounds,
with the Saxons getting a 10-6 decision from
Chipman, to bring the match to 30-30.
Simmet won a 6-4 overtime decision at
135-pounds to put the Saxons up 33-30, as the
match came down to the 140lb match up with
Denton and Noah Garces from Northern. Den-
ton had a huge comeback in the third period,
losing a decision would have tied the match,
but Denton was able to catch Garces and get
the pin with 20 seconds remaining on the
clock. The Saxons won the dual 39-30. Coach
Slaughter commented, “Denton showed a lot
of heart getting the come from behind win to
seal the deal on the dual.”
Senior captain Denton said “I’m proud of
our team for pulling out some wins on close
matches. I knew going into this match the team
win was riding on the outcome. I felt I was in
the match the whole time, pulling of scoring
moves just outside the circle. My opponent
was tired in the end and I was confident I could
get him if he stayed in the circle. That’s some-
thing about our team that makes us stand out
from the rest – we have the stamina to compete
through the third period.”
Coach Slaughter was proud of the team,
“they did well, tied the record for most dual
wins in a season. Robby and Jackson did well
going 5-0 against solid competition. Isaac and
Troy are doing very well as freshman and also
went 5-0. They are fun to watch as they both
go after it.”
The Saxons went on to defeat East Kent-
wood 69 – 8 and then finish the day with a win
against Parchment 78-3. The Saxon team has
now tied the school record for most dual wins
in a season with a record of 31-6 going into the
District tournament next week, where they
will face Wayland in the first round of the
Michigan High School Athletic Association
team tournament.
Hastings B varsity team also traveled to
Jonesville on Saturday. They had two wrestlers
go 4-1 for the day – Jordan Humphrey and
Isaiah Wilson; and two Saxons that had 3 wins
for the day – Ben Furrow and Justus Forell.Viking cheer scores its second GLAC win of 2022
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
It is a winter of growth for the two area
varsity competitive cheerleading teams in the
Greater Lansing Activities Conference.
The Lakewood varsity competitive cheer
team is poised to take its 13th consecutive
conference championship after scoring its
second GLAC victory of the season at the
jamboree it hosted Wednesday, Jan. 26, at
Lakewood High School.
While the Vikings are clearly the class of
the conference once again, besting runner-up
Leslie by over 100 points Wednesday, the
Maple Valley girls who were fourth Wednes-
day are making strides as a program as well.
Lakewood took the varsity victory with an
overall score of 737.22. Leslie was second at
629.90, ahead of Perry 615.10, Maple Valley
572.30, Stockbridge 547.28 and Webberville
468.82.
The Vikings have taken championships at
all of their competitions so far this season:
two GLAC jamborees, Friday night’s Lake-
wood Invitational and the Maple Valley New
Year Invitational where they came out on top
of their division but were a tiny bit disap-
pointed not to have outscored Charlotte from
the group of larger schools at the meet.
“We have got to be cleaner. This is a very
young team. The bulk of this team is fresh-
men and sophomores,” Lakewood head coach
Kim Martin said after Wednesday’s GLAC
jamboree. “There are a lot who did not cheer
in middle school. There are a lot of new
cheerleaders on this team, a lot of brand,
brand new cheerleaders.”
The Vikings held off on competing early in
the season just to have a little extra time to
prepare. The Lakewood freshmen on the
team didn’t get to cheer at all last winter
because the programed canceled its season
due to the pandemic.
“We’ll get there. We improve every day.
Every meet it gets a little better,” Martin said.
“We had a cleaner round one and a little bit
cleaner round three.”
The Vikings had scores of 227.20 in round
one, 212.32 in round two and 297.70 in round
three.
Martin highlighted round two as a spot that
needs some work, but also said her girls’round two skills looked outstanding during
the round two warm-up so the potential is
clearly there to keep improving scores.
The Lions had the third-best round two
score of the day and the program also got to
celebrate a victory by the Maple Valley Mid-
dle School team Wednesday.
The area youth program and middle school
program is paying dividends for the high
school program at this point at Maple Valley.
Lion head coach Sarah Huissen guessed it
had been five years or more since the varsity
team was able to put three stunt groups on the
mat in round three. There have been times
when the Lions cheered with just one group
over the past few seasons.
“It has been pretty exciting. My team is all
beginners. We have freshmen and sopho-
mores and exchange students,” Huissen said.
“It is pretty exciting. They’re a good group.
They work hard. They’re dedicated and
they’re motivated. Every competition they’re
pushing each other and really just trying to
get that next best thing with hitting it or put-
ting in a new stunt.”
The ‘next big thing’ Wednesday for the
Lions was starting to work in three twist cra-
dles to improve their scores through a round
three choreography bonus. The Vikings are
working to make sure their twist cradles are
ready for the postseason too.
“Tonight they had a little bobble with a
cradle, but they kept going. I always tell
them, ‘you can only do what you can do’ and
you just have to pick up and keep going – and
they did that,” Huissen said. “We made some
changes Monday, quickly, and then yesterday
so it was pretty quick. We’re hoping by next
week we’ll be ready to go to push towards the
end of the season.”
Young student athletes who already have
some gymnastics tumbling experience from
earlier seasons of cheer at lower levels are
especially key to the round two scores. Huis-
sen was happy to have most of her girls come
into the season with solid cartwheels to show
off in round two.
Maple Valley scored a total of 166.
points in round one, 163.50 in round two and
242.40 in round three.
Huissen said her team was a little cleaner
at its previous competition, last Saturday’s
Maple Valley New Year Invitational.
The second-place team from Leslie had
scores of 217.60 in round one, 183.40 in round
two and 228.90 in round three Wednesday.Lakewood's stunt groups near the conclusion of their round three performance at
the Greater Lansing Activities Conference jamboree at Lakewood High School Jan.- The Vikings took their second win in two conference events this season. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)
Maple Valley's Sophia Rose performs the splits with her teammates during round
two of the GLAC jamboree at Lakewood High School Wednesday (Jan. 26). (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Jessy Weber and the Lakewood varsity competitive cheer team perform a jump
during round two of the GLAC jamboree at Lakewood High School Jan. 26. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)
The Saxons' Troy Hokanson works to pin George Willmer of Forest Hills Northern
during the FHN Duals Saturday. (Photo by Valerie Slaughter)Hastings' Dillon Neal scores nearfall points during his win over Parma's Elijiah
Crish. Neal went on to an 18-5 major decision. (Photo by Valerie Slaughter)
Hastings' Isaac Friddle secures a pin over Parma's Braxton Nichols during the
Saxons' I-8 victory over the visiting Panthers Wednesday, Jan. 26. The Saxons
improved to 7-0 in conference duals with the victory over the Parma Western team
which also came into the evening with a perfect conference record. (Photo by Valerie
Slaughter)