By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
KALAMAZOO — In its first state quarterfinals appearance since 2001, Three Rivers’ wrestling season came to a shocking end Friday night, with the #6-seeded Greenville taking down the #3-seeded Wildcats 31-30 in an upset victory in the Division 2 team wrestling state tournament at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo.
The Wildcats held a 15-point lead eight bouts in following a pin by Three Rivers’ Evan Harper over Greenville’s Troy Courtney at 150 pounds with six bouts to go, but the Yellow Jackets scored 19 unanswered points to take a 31-27 lead, winning the next five matches and holding off the efforts of 285-pounder Sam Reynolds in the final bout of the evening on all mats, with Greenville’s Jordan Sholley holding Reynolds to a 6-4 decision win, a three-point victory for the Wildcats.
Three Rivers’ head coach Jeff Smith said it was “absolutely not” how he wanted to have his team, with a 29-0 record up to that point, end what had been the deepest run in two decades for the ‘Cats.
“If you get pins, you can’t give them up,” Smith said. “We gave them up. [There were] two matches where we should not have given up pins.”
One of those matches may just have been the 190-pound match, which ended in what many Wildcats fans would say is a controversial fashion. Greenville’s Nick Earles was able to pin Three Rivers’ Jaxon Smith with 1:28 left in the second period, which ultimately tied the match at 27-27. However, whether it was due to whether or not the pin happened inbounds or out of bounds, or the timing of the pin call, Three Rivers fans, coaches and wrestlers appeared shocked and flabbergasted by the result.
The Three Rivers faithful in the two sections allotted to them at Wings Event Center showed their shock, some rising to their feet with surrender cobras and throwing their arms up in the air in disbelief, while the Wildcat wrestlers and coaches looked to be aghast by the decision. One Three Rivers coach even got onto the mat to get an explanation from the official between bouts.
Following the match, the Three Rivers head coach was still none too happy with the result of that particular bout.
“That was absolutely, completely the opposite of what I thought was going to happen,” Smith said. “I don’t agree with the call from the official, but you’re not always going to get the same fair and consistent. Let them wrestle.”
Three Rivers got out to a 17-3 lead early on in the match, with the Wildcats’ Brody Morrill pinning Greenville’s Braeden Hutchins at 106 pounds in 1:16 to take a 6-0 lead. Greenville would get three points back when Caleb Lewis won a 10-6 decision over Three Rivers’ Kale Parr at 113, but Three Rivers would get a third-period pin by Jak Monroe at 120 pounds and a third-period technical fall by Ethan Moreland at 126 to take the 17-3 lead.
At 132, Greenville’s Evan Andrews would get a late reversal and pin on Three Rivers’ Ayden Keller with just three seconds remaining in the bout and Keller having the lead, making it 17-9. Three Rivers would get four points back with a Carter Hensley major decision over Greenville’s Conner Peterman at 138 pounds. After Greenville’s Alex Buskirk defeated Three Rivers’ Landon Moreland at 144, Harper won over Courtney at 150 to take the 27-12 lead.
Greenville took control of the match from there, with Liam Dailey surviving a near pin by Three Rivers’ Braylon Faile at 157 in the final seconds, thanks to the final whistle in the match to take an 11-5 decision win. Filling in for an injured Louis Smith at 165 pounds, Three Rivers’ Robby Yoder avoided getting pinned by Greenville’s Casey Eberspeaker, losing a 5-0 decision. Following that, Greenville’s Naythan Dobson got a 9-6 decision win over the Wildcats’ Jeremiah Detwiler at 175 pounds to make it 27-21, setting up the 190-pound match.
After the 190-pound match, Greenville’s Case Johnson, one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the state individually at 215 pounds, won a major decision over Joseph Anglemyer 20-6 in the 215 bout, where Anglemyer avoided losing by technical fall. In the finale, Reynolds won over Sholley 6-4, but it was not enough for the Wildcats.
Jeff Smith praised the efforts of Yoder and Anglemyer, the two fill-ins for the match, for wrestling hard and avoiding being pinned in their crucial situations.
“With [Louis] Smith being injured, Robby did what we asked him to do, go out there, and he didn’t even get majored. He just gave up a regular loss. You couldn’t ask more from that kid,” Smith said. “Same goes for the 215, Joey, your job’s to go out there and not get pinned. He did. That kid’s No. 1 in the state at 215. He wrestled six minutes with him, and that’s what you ask. Some go your way, some don’t.”
Overall, Smith said he was proud of his team for the season they had, and said he was “absolutely” excited for the future of the team.
“Our accomplishments were unbelievable. If I’d have told you at the beginning of the year we’d be wrestling here, I don’t know. 29-1 is still pretty good,” Smith said. “Look how young we are; I get every one of these guys back except one.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@acnccrtest.c1.biz.
