Hartland captures KLAA dual wrestling title, Howell gets 2 dramatic wins
Most of the dual meets in the KLAA didn’t offer much competition for Hartland this season, but some of the Eagles’ top wrestlers were able to test themselves against state-ranked opponents Wednesday.
The host Eagles concluded the dual-meet regular season by beating Belleville, 63-9, and 10th-ranked Westland John Glenn, 51-15, to win the KLAA’s dual championship.
Second-ranked Hartland finished 9-0 in KLAA duals, outscoring its opponents 641-43. The match against John Glenn was Hartland’s closest in the KLAA this season.
Hartland junior Vinnie Abbey, MichiganGrappler.com’s second-ranked 157-pounder in Division 1, won decisively against two top-10 opponents. He beat 10th-ranked Austin Martin of Belleville 18-6 and ninth-ranked Jacob Kennedy of John Glenn 13-5.
Fourth-ranked 132-pounder Easton Culver won a 4-3 decision over No. 11 Kyle Wilson of John Glenn, third-ranked 165-pounder Nick Rochowiak won 7-5 over No. 6 Connor Williams of Belleville and second-ranked 175-pounder Brayden Bobo won 7-0 over No. 5 Bernard Harrison of Belleville.
Brighton split with the two KLAA East opponents, losing 57-18 to John Glenn and beating Belleville, 48-30.
Brighton’s Easton Hardesty and Zak Knapp beat ranked opponents. Hardesty won an 11-9 decision over Wilson and Knapp pinned Martin in 43 seconds.
Hartland, Brighton and Howell will compete in the KLAA individual tournament at 9 a.m. Saturday at Howell.
Howell 40, Livonia Stevenson 37
Howell 32, Livonia Franklin 29
Brady Butcher won a dramatic final match at 165 pounds to secure Howell’s victory over Franklin.
The dual was tied heading into Butcher’s bout against Dominic Simpson. Simpson came back from an early 5-0 deficit to tie the match 13-13 with a takedown with 30 seconds left. Simpson then intentionally released Butcher, giving up a point, to try getting a takedown to win in regulation. Butcher got a takedown with 20 seconds left to win, 17-13.
Howell trailed 26-14 with five matches left. Elijah Madison won a 6-4 decision, while Drake Blazevski and Brady Metz got first-period pins to get the Highlanders back in the match.
Against Stevenson, Howell trailed 37-28 with two matches remaining. Zac Egan and Metz got first-period pins to give the Highlanders the victory.
Hockey
Birmingham 6, Howell 3
Joel Eskola, Hayden Sturos and Marco Wolf scored for Howell (5-11-2), which trailed 6-1 after two periods. Jaylyn Del Toro set up two goals for the Highlanders.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Hartland wins KLAA dual wrestling title, Howell gets 2 dramatic wins
