SJ Wrestlers Advance to States
Dan Ward- Guy Yelling From The Corner

‘Cause we are the ones that wanna play
Always wanna go, but you never wanna stay
And we are the ones that wanna choose
Always wanna play but you never wanna lose

It’s State Finals time. The State finals are nothing new to St. Johns. We have a streak of 21 straight years of somebody qualifying for the State Tournament. It’s something we are very proud of in the wrestling room. We had state qualifiers before that for the record, but the MHSAA records are difficult to read.

That said, the boys took to the mat in Chelsea on Saturday. St. Johns had four regional qualifiers in the boy’s division: Donovan Quinn, Brady Heibeck, Brody Abendroth, and Abram Matice. Unfortunately Abram was injured in the last match of Districts and could not compete on Saturday.

The starting weight class was 165 lb. So, let’s start out there:
Brady Heibeck won by fall over Luis Oyola of Melvindale in his first match in 2:26.
In the semifinal, Brady won by tech fall (20-4) in 5:15 over Waylon Lamkin of Fowlerville.

Brady Heibeck works toward a tech fall over Waylon Lamkin of Fowlerville (Photo Amy Riedel)

In the finals, Brady lost by tech fall (18-1) to Gavin VanKirk of Mason in 2:51.
Brady placed 2nd and advanced to the State Finals.

Next up at 190 lb was Brody Abendroth. This was one of the tougher weight classes in the tournament, with multiple ranked wrestlers.

Brody Abendroth takes the mat. (Photo Amy Riedel)

Brody lost by pin to Isaac Kemp of Carleton Airport in his first match in 3:29.
In his second match, Brody lost by pin to Mohammad Sins of Ypsilanti Community in 2:09.
Brody finishes his season 35-10.

Finally, at 106 lb, we had Donovan Quinn.
Donovan received a bye into the semifinals. In the semifinal match, he lost a close 9-8 decision against Caleb Fraizer of Huron New Boston.
In the blood round, Donovan punched his ticket to the state finals by defeating Drew Holevac of Eaton Rapids 5-1.

Donovan Quinn punches his ticket to the finals (Photo Amy Ridel)

Donovan won by tech fall (21-0) in 3:32 in the Consolation Finals over Mason’s Rene Gonzalez.

Donovan placed 3rd and also advanced to the State Finals.

Brady Heibeck and Donovan Quinn will be wrestling in 2 weeks at Ford Field. (Photo Matt Pettigrew)

The girls hit the mats on Sunday in Howell. The Redwings were represented by Olivia Pettigrew.
Olivia was also in one of the toughest brackets in the tournament, with several ranked girls.
Olivia lost to Angelina Bailo of Lake Orion in her first match by a 3-0 decision.
Olivia won her next match by pin over Kara Wright of Caro in 4:44.

Olivia works for a pin over Kara Wright of Caro (Photo Dan Riedel)

In the Blood Round, Olivia was pinned by Olivia Root of Holt in 1:42.

Olivia finishes her season with a record of 28-13.

Wrestling means a lot to me. It truly made me who I am. My Facebook page and Instagram are filled with wrestling memes and moves.  My office is filled with wrestling stuff I’ve collected. Sitting beside me on the floor is a pair of wrestling shoes I wear on the treadmill almost daily. In the back of my Jeep is another pair, battered and torn, missing the Asics logo on one side, that I wear to practice. I had to sew them up this year, and my wife said, “Why don’t you just buy a new pair?” I honestly don’t know why I don’t; I just like that old pair.

(Photo Dan Ward)

Pretty soon, they will be pulling up the mats in the balcony, which incidentally is where I practiced 30 some years ago, so Baseball and Softball can practice throwing.
I saw this quote the other day, and I thought it would be an appropriate way to close out this season. (Don’t worry; I know we still have some wrestlers going.)

“They say “After wrestling everything is easy”. This is true but I’m not sure it lies within the hardship, struggle and sacrifice the sport demands. At the heart is the character that is required to simply step on the mat alone, void of blame to give teammates or others to lean on. A sport where children learn the oldest form of hand to hand combat and then carry this into adulthood, where inevitably hard times come, but that inner warrior always stares back and says, “I’m a wrestler; you don’t know what I’ve done.” -James Lenon.

I wanted to thank you all for “listening” to me this season, I hope you weren’t too bored reading my ramblings. Thanks to Chris Hallead for giving me the opportunity. As I’ve said all along, I’m just doing what I like to do.