THE HASTINGS
Thursday, February 24, 2022TK narrows regional gap with state champs
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Eight to six.
Lights on the scoreboard in the Thornapple
Kellogg High School gymnasium at the end
of Wednesday night’s (Feb. 16) MHSAA
Division 2 Regional Final didn’t quite indi-
cate a dual that close, but that was the differ-
ence in wins on the mat.
Lowell, the top ranked team in the state in
Division 2, won eight weight classes and
Thornapple Kellogg’s varsity wrestling team,
ranked eighth, won six.
The Red Arrows continue on their path
towards a ninth consecutive MHSAA Divi-
sion 2 Team State Championship thanks to a
43-24 victory over the Trojans in Middleville.
It was the closest the two teams have been in
a postseason match-up over the past three
seasons. Lowell defeated the TK grapplers
50-22 in a 2021 regional final and 47-6 in the
regional semifinals in 2020.
“We’re within 20 points, 19 points, of the
number one team in the whole state of Michi-
gan,” TK head coach Dayne Fletke said after
the defeat, “and I thought we had some really
back and forth matches. With both sides of the
crowd, we had two sides cheering and I think
the kids on both sides stayed engaged the
entire match. You could feel the atmosphere.
It was a good win for them. We were ready to
wrestle and our kids were feeding off that,
helping each other and pushing them through.
It shows that they want to rise up and they’re
okay wrestling that type of competition.”
Lowell is a team with 14 individual region-
al qualifiers this season. TK has ten.
Junior Zach Gibson, one of those ten TK
regional qualifiers who was a district champi-
on at 135 pounds at the individual tournament
held last Saturday in Lowell, bumped up to
140 to close out the match against the Red
Arrows and managed a 6-3 victory over
Landon Miller who was a district champion
at 140 last weekend.
Gibson fought from a 3-0 hole midway
through the second period to score his win,
getting a quick reversal at the start of the third
period to go ahead 4-3 and then putting Mill-
er on his back for two more points before the
match was up.
“He just battled that one out to the very
end,” Fletke said of Gibson. “It goes back and
forth. He got hit in a lat drop and battles back
from down three to nothing.
“Chivis wins in overtime at 171. Matthew
Middleton wins a good one. There were a lot
of highlights. Jackson Curtis won a nice
match. If you look up, even the kids that went
out there and got pinned they didn’t give it up.
They went out there and fought for its. Over-
all I think it was a good night for the program
and I think we can continue to build on it.”
Those were also among the highlights for
teammate Ashton Corson, a 125-pound dis-
trict champion last weekend who took the
mat at 135 Wednesday night against Lowell.
He was also pleased to see freshman team-
mate Christien Miller fight off a pin at 103
pounds against an opponent who pinned him
at individual districts.
Corson, a senior, said he was hoping for
another go-around with Lowell senior Ramsy
Mutschler who he defeated in the match for
third place in the 119-pound weight class at
the 2021 MHSAA Division 2 Individual State
Finals, but Lowell chose not to put anyone
out on the mat to face him in the 135-pound
bout Wednesday.
“The team is definitely getting better, but
we’re not where we want to be yet,” Corson
said. “Beating Lowell is one of the goals, and
just getting into the state tournament.
“Just kids practicing hard and keep getting
better. That is basically all we can do.”
Pins accounted for the big difference on
the scoreboard in the end. Lowell got pins
from James Link at 145 pounds, Carson
Crace at 189, Carter Blough at 215, Bryson
Vandermeulen at 285, Landon Musgrave at
112 pounds and Jackson Blum at 119 pounds.
The Red Arrows also got five points thanks to
a 15-0 technical fall by Carter Cichocki in the
103-pound match against Christien Miller.
Lowell’s only six-minute victory came
from Chase Wilder at 130 pounds, who edged
Tyler Bushman 9-7.
TK had a 9-6 lead after the first four bouts
of the regional final. Link opened the dual
with his pin of Andrew Middleton at 145
pounds, but junior Jackson Curtis and senior
Matthew Middleton got those points back for
TK. Matthew Middleton, who earned his
100th varsity victory in the Trojans’ regional
semifinal win over Forest Hills Central, got
win 101 by besting Nate Cleaver 4-0 at 160
pounds. Curtis pulled out a 5-3 win over Jared
Boone at 152 pounds, scoring all five of his
points in the second period with an escape, a
take down and a pair of nearfall points.
The dual was tied 6-6 when TK’s Austin
Chivis, who also earned his 100th varsity win
in the regional semifinal, took the mat against
Lowell’s Tacho Gonzales at 171 pounds. Chi-
vis earned a 6-4 win with a takedown 47
seconds into a one minute sudden victory
overtime period. Gonzales had fought out of
a 3-0 hole eventually tying the match at 4-
and sending it to overtime with a take down
with 21 seconds left in the third period.
TK led 9-6 at that point before the Red
Arrows scored pins in the three heaviest bouts.
Lowell built its lead up to 41-9 heading into
the 125-pound match – getting a regional
championship clinching pin from Blum against
TK’s Micah Bowerman at 119 pounds.
TK got six points at 125 pounds and Low-
ell lost one. The Red Arrows’ Owen Segorski,
the district runner-up to Corson at 125 pounds
last weekend, built a 7-0 lead over TK’s
Hunter Pitsch in the second period of their
bout. Pitsch, who himself is a 119-pound dis-
trict champion in 2022, struggled a bit with
the heavier Segorski and was fighting for an
escape when the Red Arrow wrapped him up,
lifted him off the mat and slammed him down
on a shoulder – drawing a penalty.
A Lowell coach drew a misconduct penal-
ty, to take a point off the Red Arrows’ team
scoreboard, while discussing the moment
with officials as trainers and coaches looked
over the injured Trojan. Pitsch, a senior look-
ing towards possibly earning a spot in the
individual state finals, was unable to continue
and instead went for a further look at his
shoulder and an ice bag to the jeers and boos
of the Lowell supporters.
Pitsch was able to wrestle along with team-
mates Christen Miller, Corson, Bushman,
Kyron Zoet, Gibson, Andrew Middleton,
Curtis, Matthew Middleton and Chivis at the
MHSAA Division 2 Individual Regional
Tournament hosted by Allendale Saturday,
Feb. 19.
Both TK and Lowell were dominant in
their regional semifinal match-ups Wednes-
day (Feb. 16). TK defeated Forest Hills Cen-
tral 61-15. Lowell bested Sparta 56-16.In the dual with the Rangers, TK got pins
from Gibson at 145 pounds, Curtis at 152,
Chivis at 171, Brenen Simon at 285, Chris-
tien Miller at 103 and a win against a void by
Aiden Foy at 112 pounds. Andrew Miller
opened the match with an 8-0 major decision
at 140 pounds for TK.
TK would stretch its lead to 27-0 before
the Rangers got on the scoreboard, adding a
16-1 technical fall by Matthew Middleton at
160 as well during those first five bouts.
The Trojans tacked on a 10-2 major deci-
sion by Jayden Garcia at 215 pounds too.Lions and Panthers on to regionals
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
For the first time in program history the
Maple Valley varsity competitive cheer team
has qualified for the regional round of the
state tournament.
The Lions finished fourth, a spot behind
Delton Kellogg, to earn the fourth and final
regional qualifying spot at the MHSAA
Division 4 District Tournament hosted by
Lawrence High School Saturday. The dis-
trict tournament scheduled was altered Fri-
day afternoon due to issues at Lawton High
School which was supposed to host the
tournament Friday evening.
The Lawton girls still got to cheer Satur-
day, winning the district championship with
an overall point total of 708.62. Buchanan
was second with a score of 668.70, Delton
Kellogg third at 655.38 and Maple Valley
fourth at 608.90. The fifth-place White
Pigeon team which saw its season end Sat-
urday was just 2.4 points back of the Lions
with a total score of 606.50.
Those top four teams will compete in the
MHSAA Division 4 Regional hosted by
Jenison High School Saturday morning
beginning at 11 a.m.
“We had our best day, by far,” Delton
Kellogg head coach Zoe Reynolds said –
emphasizing the “by far.”
The Panthers have been regular regional
qualifiers over the past few years, but have
yet to break through and earn a spot in the
state finals with a top four regional finish.
“They worked really hard the week lead-ing up to districts and knew they needed to
give a first place effort to move on,” Reyn-
olds said of her girls. “They impressed and
surprised themselves and to be honest they
impressed me.”
Delton Kellogg put together a score of
211.10 in round one, 187.78 in round two
and 256.50 in round three. Buchanan jumped
ahead of the Panthers into the runner-up spot
with a strong round three showing. The
Delton Kellogg girls were a little over five
points ahead of the Buchanan girls heading
into round three.
“We worked on our motions, jumps and
staying tight in round one,” Reynolds said.
“In round two, we cleaned up some timing
issues. In round three, we gave our best
effort, but it was still not as clean as it needs
to be.”
Lawton had the top score in each of the
three rounds. The Blue Devils scored 217.
points in round one, 200.52 in round two
and 292.40 in round three.
Maple Valley qualified for regionals with
a 195.10 in round one and 161.80 in round
two. The Lions closed out their day with a
score of 252.00 in round three. The Lions
outscored White Pigeon by half a point in
round one and by a little over in six points in
round two after White Pigeon was hit with a
ten-point deduction. That deduction didn’t
show up on the score sheet Lion head coach
Sarah Huissen saw at the end of round three- so as scores were read she worried her
team’s season had come to an end.
When it came to announce the team with
the fifth place score and White Pigeon was
announced, the Lions went crazy.
“We did it,” Huissen said. “I had this
shock of, ‘oh my gosh, we’ve made it.
We’ve qualified to go. I was looking at the
girls, and seeing the girls and their excite-
ment it was definitely a special moment –
ten years in the making.”
The Lions could have been happy in their
performance anyway. It was the first time
this season that the Lions surpassed the 600-
point total.
While Huissen said her girls were a little
flustered Friday afternoon by the late sched-
ule change, it might have helped in the end.
“We ran through the rounds again and had
a fun activity at the end,” Huissen said. “We
call it ‘all good things.’ We did it at camp
years ago, and just go around and tell each
other the things that they are good at and
what they appreciate about each other. It’s a
fun group activity. I think they really enjoyed
it. We had a great practice on Friday – short
and sweet.”
The Lions are working on their timing
heading into regionals.
The Delton Kellogg girls have plenty to
focus on themselves.
“For this week we will continue to clean
up things in one and two,” coach Reynolds
said. “We need to work on our voice and use
more inflection. We have lots of foot work
to clean up in round three. We know it will
take a lot of work to move on from regionals
to state, but we are up for the challenge and
will give it our best effort.”Thornapple Kellogg senior Matthew Middleton lifts Lowell's Nate Cleaver off the mat
during their 160-pound bout early on in the MHSAA Division 2 Team Regional Final in
Middleville Wednesday, Feb. 16. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg's Austin Chivis (top) gets all tangled up with Lowell's Tacho Gonzales during the opening period of their 171-
pound bout in the MHSAA Division 2 Team Regional Final hosted by TKHS Feb. 16. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg's Zach Gibson (top) works to try and turn Lowell's Landon Miller during the second period of their 140-pound
match at the end of the MHSAA Division 2 Team Regional Final in Middleville Wednesday (Feb. 16). (Photo by Brett Bremer)