White Pigeon wins district wrestling crown
The White Pigeon wrestling team secured the best season in school history on Wednesday.
That is, at least, in terms of wins on the year. With victories over Marcellus (70-12) and Centreville (66-8), the Chiefs have piled up 31 wins on the season to this point.
The district championship saw White Pigeon beat Centreville. It was the second consecutive district title for the Chiefs.
“I’m very proud of this team, they have worked hard all year,” White Pigeon coach Jay Sosinski said. “We’re a young team, as well with a lot of first-year kid. To win the district is great, it’s really nice for these guys.”
The finals started with Caleb Lane getting his hand raised with a void victory at 165 pounds. That was followed up by one of Centreville’s wins as Jamal Noble beat Norberto Monroy with a decision at 175.
At 190 and 215, White Pigeon received back-to-back pinfall victories by Landon Peterson and Nate Irwin.
Peterson pinned Colton Stark at 2:44, Irwin won by pin over Wyatt Stark in 35 seconds.
These wins gave White Pigeon an 18-2 lead. Centreville was docked a team point because of a check-in error at the scorer’s table prior to a bout.
At heavyweight, Chaz Underwood pinned Payton Balle at 4:22, pushing the White Pigeon lead to 24-2.
Mazzy Lambert pinned Rockne Hamilton at 2:35 in their bout at 106, Hunter Pant then won by void at 113 as did Ian Johnson at 120 for White Pigeon. The score was then 42-2.
At 126 pounds, Drew Johnson won over Braxton Harker by pin at 1:51. Gavin McGrady followed that with a pinfall win over Brady Miller in 3:47.
Jesse Fielis would also win by pin for White Pigeon at 138, he beat Max Yoder at 4:22.
Noah Brooks secured a win for Centreville at 144 pounds. He won his bout over Cole Jackson by a decision.
Then, Evan Rudloff would pin Lukas Brooks at 150 pounds at 3:57.
In the final bout of the match, Centreville earned an impressive 1-0 victory from Owen Taylor. He beat Luke Hinkson at 157 pounds.
With the win, the White Pigeon grapplers advance to the team regional round. The Chiefs will take on Decatur in that one with Martin and Lawton wrestling in the other semifinal. A host site had not been established as of late Wednesday evening by the MHSAA.
“It all worked out for us tonight, our guys wrestled well,” Sosinski said of the Chiefs. “They wrestled like they were capable of, they wrestled like they wanted it tonight.”
In the opening match, White Pigeon won over Marcellus.
The Chiefs were awarded void wins to Lambert at 106, Pant at 113, Nathan Carmona at 126, McGrady at 132, Jackson at 144, Hinkson at 157 and Underwood at heavyweight. Winning bouts for the Chiefs were Johnson by pin at 120, Fielis by pin at 138, Rudloff by pin at 150, Lane by pin at 165 and Irwin by major decision at 15-3.
Marcellus got a pin from Kyle Drauch at 175 and Chase Karn at 215.
Individual district action for all three teams will be in Schoolcraft on Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: White Pigeon wins district wrestling crown
