Gaylord wrestling victorious at Northern Michigan Championships, cheer wins in Farwell
GAYLORD ― Another busy weekend for Gaylord area teams was made even more exciting for some teams as they came home with championship crowns.
Both the Gaylord wrestling and competitive cheer teams were in action this weekend, with the wrestlers hosting the 31-team Northern Michigan Championships and the cheer team off in Farwell for another Invitational.
In the end, both came away with championship crowns, with the wrestlers topping the 31-team field while the cheerleaders scored the best among Divisions 1 and 2 among ten competing teams en route to first-place finishes.
The wrestlers were led by a number of first-place finishers in their respective weight classes, including Jaron Bensinger, Louden Stradling, Brayden Gautreau, Ty Bensinger and Riley Hush.
Jaron Bensinger won four matches in the 106-pound class, taking first place with a win over Brady Demory (Gladwin HS) in the final round. Stradling, competing in the 144-pound class, also won four rounds en route to his championship win, eventually defeating Traverse City Central's Dutch Ballan in the final round for the team's second overall victory.
Gautreau needed just three victories to win the 175-pound class after receiving two byes, eventually clinching the class victory after defeating Charlevoix's Brady Jess in the final match. Both Ty Bensinger and Hush won four matches en route to their victories, with Bensinger defeating Tyler Brooks (Pinconning Area HS) in the 190-pound class and Hush defeating Remington Soper (TC Central) in the 215-pound class for their championship victories.
Gus James also placed second in the 150-pound class, defeating Andrew Kiaunis (Reed City HS), Dalton Geetings (Benzie Central HS) and Justin Grahn (Kingsley Area HS) before falling to Petoskey's Brendan Swiss in the finals.
Louden Stradling was named lower-weight MVP while Ty Bensinger was the upper-weight MVP.
Meanwhile, the cheer team put together their most complete three rounds of their season en route to their first championship, taking home the best score in Divisions 1 and 2 after their trip to Farwell.
Head coach Brittany Gunderson said tweaks to their opening round routine paid off in a big way, placing in the top three amongst all ten teams.
Their second-round score was also a high point for the team, putting up 178.7 points, the most the Blue Devils have scored in the second-round since Gunderson took over the program in 2017.
The third round almost proved to be a disaster, however, as a collapsed stunt put their final score in jeopardy.
"Early in the season this would have easily taken us out of the running because we would have let that get to us and not have been able to recover," said Gunderson.
However, their recent focus on the mental aspects of cheerleading paid off for them, as their recovery worked to perfection to finish off their best three-round performance of the season.
They came away with a total score of 660.7, edging out Midland (D1) at 612.3 for the best score among the top two divisions.
Both teams will be back in action in the coming weeks, with the wrestlers traveling to TC Central for the Big North Conference Tournament on Saturday, February 4 while the cheer team travels to East Jordan on Thursday, February 9.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Gaylord wrestling victorious at Northern Michigan Championships, cheer wins in Farwell
