If you enjoy high school wrestling, there was no better place to be today than Saline High School.  It is a beautiful facility with plenty of room for three mats and many hundreds of fans, and the tournament could not have gone more smoothly.  However, the biggest plus was the 112 wrestlers who gave it their all in an effort to qualify for the individual state tournament.  There were plenty of dominating individual performances, dramatic upsets, and one truly amazing team accomplishment.

  Of local interest was Canton putting six of nine wrestlers into the state tournament.  Donnie Watkins (140 pounds) and Brent Winekoff (152) were absolutely dominant in winning their regional championships.  Watkins scored a fall, a 12-0 major decision, and a technical fall in his three matches. 

  Winekoff scored two falls, and in the championship match his opponent opted not to wrestle, handing Brent the championship uncontested.  Keith Zech (160) and Anthony Abro (189) had some closer matches, but were in control throughout and also were regional champions. 

  Ben Poirer (215) bounced back from his fourth place performance at districts and pulled out some very close matches to take third.  Rounding out the qualifiers is three-time state qualifier Waleed Faraj (125), who ended up fourth in a very tough weight.

  Senior Mitch Wolski (130) ended his career with a tough 7-4 loss to Catholic Central’s Nick Mason in the “blood round”.  Freshman Richard DeMarois (103) and sophomore Alex Eimers (119) also failed to qualify for the state tournament.

  Plymouth’s Wally Eppler (285) looked to be headed to the state meet.  He led Farmington’s Dylan Wells 1-0 in the third period of the “blood round” and appeared to be riding him out.  However, with about 20 seconds remaining, Wells scored a reversal and ended up winning 2-1.

  Salem also failed to send a wrestler to the state tournament.  James Middleditch (135) lost both his matches, and Devin Stratton (125) lost a very close and exciting blood round match to Canton’s Waleed Faraj.

  The gutsiest performance of the day was turned in by Livonia Churchill’s Jacob Meadows at 112 pounds.  After losing his first match to Wyandotte’s Evan Guffey, Meadows found himself at the brink of elimination when he apparently dislocated his shoulder while wrestling Chad Turner of Southgate Anderson.  Meadows popped his shoulder back in and staged a furious come-back to defeated the returning all-state wrestler.  In his next match, Meadows was trailing another all-state wrestler, John Glenn’s Steve Wakeford, in the third period.  After a rules violation by a John Glenn assistant coach tied the match, Meadows scored a reversal and nearfall to win the match and qualify for states.

  The amazing team accomplishment was turned in by Detroit Catholic Central, who qualified all 14 of its wrestlers.  Five were champions:  Ken Bade (103), Todd Melick (112), Alec Mooradian (119), Doug Eldridge (145), and Mike Kinville (215).  T.J. Fagan (103), Charlie Joseph (125), Justin Melick (135), Miles Trealout (189), and Andrew Johnson (215) placed second.  Andrew Erickson (160) was third and Matt Thompson (119), Nick Mason (130), and Gerid Gee (152) captured fourth.  Additionally, the participating coaches voted Bob Moreau assistant regional coach of the year, and head coach Mitch Hancock regional co-coach of the year.

  In total, including other regional competition, 38 of the 74 regional qualifiers from Observerland area teams have made it to the state individual tournament.  The Canton and Catholic Central state qualifiers are described above.  The other are:

  Belleville (4):  Tyler Schneider (130) placed second and  Brendan Papin (119) placed third.  Andrew Majewski (145) and Forrest Sampson (215) took fourth.

  Farmington (1):  Dylan Wells (285) was fourth.

  Farmington Hills Harrison (1):  Kevin Beazley (160) placed second.

  John Glenn (5):  Anthony Pavlich (130) was first and Josh Austin (119), Travis Mann (140) and Mike Johnson (145) placed second.  Coming in third was Dustin Gajowiak (285).

  Livonia Churchill (2):  Curtis Castleberry (171) came in second and Jacob Meadows (112) placed fourth.

  Livonia Franklin (2):  Steve Tuyo (119) and Matt Roos (152) placed third. 

  Lutheran Westland (2):  Laith Francis (125) and Justin Palka (130) placed second.

  North Farmington (1):  Matt Jaisle (119) was regional runner-up.