By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
KALAMAZOO — For the second year in a row, the Constantine wrestling team will be heading to Saturday action at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo for the state semifinals in team wrestling.
In Saturday’s Division 3 state quarterfinal match against Hart, the Falcons took home a narrow 32-30 victory over Hart, holding off a late comeback attempt by the Pirates, who came back from down 32-15 in the last three matches of the day.
With the win, the Falcons will face a familiar opponent in the semifinals. For the second year in a row, Constantine will face off with six-time defending state champion Dundee, the #1 team in Division 3. The match takes place Saturday at noon on Mat 3 at Wings Event Center.
Friday’s quarterfinal match came down to the 120-pound match, the final match of the day, pitting Constantine’s Jace Vavul against Hart’s Kole Thomas. With Constantine up 32-37, anything less than a technical fall for Hart would give Constantine the victory, and Vavul made sure it wouldn’t happen. Despite losing to Thomas 4-2 in sudden victory, Hart only received three points for the win, and Constantine came out on top.
“It feels surreal still. The kids worked hard for this, and for it to be able to come down to the end and the last match, Jace Vavul has put in so much work this summer and had an up and down season, and for him to go out and compete against a kid who is one of the best kids on their team is amazing,” Constantine head coach Dale Davidhizar said.
Constantine came out hot, winning the first four matches of the evening to go up 17-0. At 126 pounds, the Falcons’ Preston Like defeated Hart’s Logan Jorissen 10-2, followed by Constantine’s Bear Geibe defeating Hart’s Ty Thomas 13-2. At 138, Constantine’s Koltin Gross would pin Kai Miller 35 seconds into the second period, and at 144 Michael Featherstone would win a 3-2 bout over individual state qualifier Joseluis Andaverde after a late takedown in the third period.
Hart would win the next two matches at 150 and 157 before Dathan Smith won his match by void at 165 to give Constantine a 23-6 lead. Hart’s Alex Hicks would pin Constantine’s Carter Godfrey with 32 seconds left in the second period to make it 23-12 before the Falcons would get back in the win column with a gutsy 4-2 sudden victory win by Gregg Reed over Hart’s Adrian Tice, in which Reed found himself down 2-0 entering the final period.
“Gregg we thought would win that match, but he’s also injured, pretty banged up and been sick, so he kind of struggled out there a little bit, but he pulled through in the end and that’s all we can ask for,” Davidhizar said.
Hart would get three points at 215 with a 5-2 win by Ivan Lara over the Falcons’ Greg Crawford, but Bennett VandenBerg would get a key pin of Hart’s Adrian Lara 50 seconds into the second period to put the Falcons up 32-15. Hart would get two straight early first-period pins by Aiden Schaner at 106 and Jose Chavira at 113 to make it 32-27, but Vavul’s heroics saved Constantine in the end.
“We knew if it was within reach down there that it was going to be hard to finish out. That’s one of our weaker areas and one of their stronger areas. We were hoping we had it sealed up before we got there,” Davidhizar said. “It takes a whole team, and we have a whole team.”
Davidhizar said he looks forward to the rematch with Dundee in the state semis.
“All we can do is get after them, and our kids will be ready. They’re going to be giving it everything they got, and win or lose, we’re there,” Davidhizar said. “We’re going to wrestle as hard as we can and have something to prove.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@acnccrtest.c1.biz.