Omar Haymour (Livonia Franklin) has the upper hand early over Jacob Range (Livonia Stevenson) in their heavyweight bout, but Range ended up winning by fall. (Charles Rothwell photo)

Local wrestlers swing into
action at Grappler Classic

  Thirty-eight local wrestlers participated in a national tournament at Tecumseh High School on Saturday. 

  After more than 14 hours of wrestling, twelve came home with some hardware. Leading the way was Canton freshman, Ben Griffin, who was the 98 pound champion.  Griffin rolled through his weight class with dominating victories over three other freshmen, including NUWAY National Champion Nathan Weckesser of Remus Chippewa Hills.

  Canton had a very successful showing, with three of four grapplers placing.  Anthony Abro went up against three Ohio wrestlers at 215 pounds.  He won two of those matches and placed third.  His only loss was in overtime to eventual champion Jason Gott of Elyria. 

  Sean O’Keefe placed eighth at 160 pounds and had a very impressive victory over 2-time state qualifier Daniel Urban of Kentucky.  Keshav Patel went 2-2 at 119 pounds, but failed to place in the deepest weight of the tournament.

  Perhaps the most impressive performance by a local wrestler was turned in by another freshman, Detroit Catholic Central’s Logan Marcicki.  In the 130-pound weight class, Marcicki defeated returning state placer Jeff Jenkins of Tecumseh 11-6 in the quarter-finals, and three-time state placer Joey White of Dundee 10-6 in the semi-finals, before falling in the championship match to returning state placer Terry Turner of Davison. 

  Five other Shamrocks placed:  Malik Amine and Zack Colone finished sixth and seventh, respectively, at 112 pounds; Ken Bade was fourth at 119 pounds, Miles Trealout fifth at 189, and Mike Popiela seventh at 285.  Catholic Central entered 17 wrestlers in the tournament, demonstrating their intent to defend their team state championship.

  Other local wrestlers that placed were Andre Sanders of Farmington Hill Harrison (5^th at 119), Nick Tomski of Farmington (8^th at 152), and Matt Roos of Livonia Franklin (4^th at 189).

  Plymouth entered five wrestlers and two had fairly strong showings, but failed to place at very deep weights.  Trey Berry was 3-2 at 112 pounds and Alec Breckenridge was 2-2 at 119.

Ben Griffin was all smiles following his championship victory at 98 pounds. (Charles Rothwell photo)

Canton's Sean O'Keefe won't stay in the down position long. He won this match over Daniel Urban of Kentucky by dominating in the top position. (Charles Rothwell photo)