Recaps, Gaylord Herald Times Player of the Year named for hockey, wrestling and skiing
GAYLORD ― The winter sports season is possibly the busiest time of year for prep sports in the Gaylord area.
On top of the multiple competitive basketball teams from the three high schools, the Blue Devils also field a number of other competitive rosters across the other winter sports, meaning there is plenty of recognition to go around.
Both the Gaylord wrestling team and the ski team produced multiple MHSAA Divison 2 state finalists, with the wrestlers claiming yet another individual state title when all was said and done. Meanwhile, a young Gaylord hockey team saw improvement throughout the year, capped off with three wins and a loss in their final four games.
See how each team fared throughout the 2022-23 campaign, including the winner of the Gaylord Herald Times Player of the Year for each respective sport.
Wrestling
The dominance of the Gaylord wrestling team under head coach Jerr LaJoie is unquestionable, coming into the season with 15 straight Big North Conference titles, multiple individual state champions from a season ago and looking to go back to the state finals as a team after falling short in 2022.
In that regard, the 2022-23 season was just par for the course for the Blue Devils.
It was another successful season for the Blue Devils, ending for the team in the state semifinals to the eventual state champion Lowell Red Arrows, but wrapping in totality at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. as eight wrestlers qualified for the state finals, five individuals medaled and one brought home a back-to-back individual championship.
Senior Brayden Gautreau's second-straight state championship was the highlight of the weekend, capping off his second-straight state title with a win over Lowell's Carson Crace to take first place in Division 2, 175-pound class.
He finished his final high school season with a 52-1 overall record and solidified himself as one of the top wrestlers in the state, earning him the GHT Wrestler of the Year Award.
Other state finalists included Louden Stradling (second place, 144), Sunni LaFond (second place, girls 110), Ty Bensinger (third place, 190) and Jaron Bensinger (fourth place, 106). Zane Willobee, Riley Hush and Caiden Sides also made the trip to the state finals, looking to improve their finishes in the coming years.
The individual success is in addition to all the team success from the Blue Devils, including a 16th straight BNC title, another two championships from the MHSAA district and regional rounds as well as Coach LaJoie's 800th team win.
Ski
The Gaylord skiers have also been among the best in Northern Michigan for quite some time, and another group of skiers added to that legacy this year.
A successful season was capped at the D2 state finals held at Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls, Mich. for the Blue Devils, where their three state finalists all finished with top-ten finishes to cap off the 2023 campaign.
Senior Kaija Lazda, the 2023 GHT Skier of the Year, led the Blue Devils at the state final races, finishing ninth in the slalom with a combined time of 75.15 while finishing 11th in the giant slalom with a combined time of 78.70.
On the boys side, senior Jack Robel and sophomore Keaton Abraham both posted top-ten times as well, with Robel finishing fourth in the giant slalom with a 69.18 overall time and Abraham finishing fifth in the slalom with a time of 73.15.
That followed their impressive finishes at the regional races at Nub's Nob, with Lazda placing fifth in the slalom and third in the giant slalom, Abraham placing fourth in the giant slalom and Robel finishing fifth in the giant slalom.
Other standouts from the regional races on the girls side included Rayna Robel, who finished 13th in the slalom and 22nd in the giant slalom, and Clover Hamilton, who finished 20th in the giant slalom. Kevin Zaremba stood out for the boys, finishing 13th in the slalom and 29th in the giant slalom.
Hockey
The Blue Devils hockey team went through an up-and-down season, and with many players in the early stages of their hockey careers, the future is beginning to look up as the team heads into another offseason.
Gaylord finished with a 9-18-0 overall record, placing fifth out of six teams with a 1-9 record in the Big North Conference.
However, it was in the details where the Blue Devils made their mark on the Northern Michigan landscape.
Despite a young, inexperienced team, the Blue Devils stayed competitive in most games, while finding individual matchups they could thrive in. Their best matchup was with their rivals from Petoskey, winning two of the three matchups with the Northmen while knocking them out of the MHSAA D2 playoffs on their home ice in a 5-2 victory.
GHS was led by sophomore Bryton Thaxton, the easy choice for the GHT Hockey Player of the Year after finishing atop the team stat leaders in points (41), goals (27) and assists (14). He had multiple games with multi-goal performances, including a first-period hat trick in the second of three games with Petoskey.
Other top players included senior Isaac Hopp (26 points, 13 goals, 13 assists), Collin Garbulinski (11 points, six goals, five assists) and Gage Looker (11 points, four goals, seven assists).
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Recaps, Gaylord Herald Times Player of the Year named for hockey, wrestling and skiing
