Union City, Bronson clean up at BC Central Wrestling Invite

BATTLE CREEK, MI. — The Bronson Vikings, Union City Chargers, and Tekonsha Indians all made the trip to Battle Creek Central High School on Saturday to compete in the McGinnis-Evans Invitational, an individual style tournament pitting some of the top local talent versus one another in action on the mat.

Of the local teams it was Union City leading the way in the team standings, finishing in fourth place with 148.5 points, just ahead of the Bronson Vikings who finished in fifth place with a score of 142 points. Tekonsha finished in seventeenth place overall with a score of 3 points.

The team from Plainwell took home the championship with a score of 214 points, followed by Grandville in second place with 198.5 points and John Glenn HS-Westland in third place with 179 points.

Union City Chargers

Union City brought home a solid nine medals on the day, including two weight class champions and one runner-up finish.

Bringing home the gold at 132 pounds was junior Landyn Crance (30-2), who is quickly closing in on career win 100 with his championship run. Crance started his day off with a dominant tech fall win over Breckin Meeks of Vicksburg by the score of 19-4, followed by a quarterfinal win over Terrell Haddley of Battle Creek Central via pin fall in 2:29. In the semifinals it was Crance taking down Luke Brown of Lake Orion by pin fall in 1:15, setting up a very exciting matchup with Xavier Carpentier of Grandville (23-5) for the gold medal. The two solid grapplers found themselves tied at the end of regulation as the title match went to overtime. Crance managed a take down in sudden victory to take the 8-6 win and the gold medal.

Union City’s other gold medal came at 215 pounds where senior Grady Iobe (24-1) bested the tough field of wresters for the championship win. Iobe kicked off the day wth a quarterfinal win via pin fall over Jayden Reynolds of Kenowa Hills in 2:23, followed by a semifinal pin fall win over Aidan Duncan of Parma Western in 1:09, setting up a much anticipated championship bout with the 20-0 Kaijehl Williams of Battle Creek Central. The two battled in a back and forth match, a meeting that saw Iobe leading 2-1 after one period and 7-3 after two. Starting in the down position in the third period Iobe hit a quick reversal which he quickly turned into a pinning combo. Eventually Iobe secured the pin fall win, taking home the gold medal at 215 pounds by pin fall in 5:30.

Union City also had one runner-up finish on the day as sophomore Aidan Taylor (23-5) took second place at 138 pounds. Taylor kicked off the day wth a quarterfinal win over Steele Madison of Plainwell via a 4-1 decision, leading to a big semifinal battle with Bronson freshman Layne Knisely. Taylor hit a big take down early in the match and never really looked back, going on to take the 8-2 decision win, punching his ticket to the championship finals. Unfortunately Taylor aggravated an injury in his semifinal win and was unable to compete in the championship versus Matthew Irwin of John Glenn, losing via forfeit. Taylor still earned runner-up honors, his highest individual finish of the season.

Also earning some hardware for Union City at the Battle Creek Central Invite were Montana Connell with a fourth place finish at 144 pounds; Colton Russell with a fifth place finish at 150 pounds; John Olmstead with a fifth place finish at 165 pounds; Hunter Gillies with a sixth place finish at 215 pounds; Logan Mears with a fourth place finish at 113 pounds; and Mason Hawthorne with a sixth place finish at 120 pounds.

Bronson Vikings

The Bronson Vikings also saw a very successful day at Battle Creek Central, bringing home a total of eight medals, including one runner-up finish and five third place finishes.

Leading the Bronson attack was senior Drew Seekman (18-5) who took runner-up honors at 150 pounds. Seekman started his day off with a pin fall win over Aiden Stiltner of Harper Creek in 1:40, followed by a 11-5 decision win over Ethan Newville of Grandville in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals it was Seekman defeating Michael Ackerman of Adams via a 14-5 major decision, setting up the championship bout with Jake Jonker (32-3) of Kenowa Hills. Jonker went on to defeat Seekman via decision, taking the championship with a 7-2 win, giving Seekman the very respectable silver medal.

Five Bronson grapplers also brought home the bronze medal of their weight class to represent the Hammerin Vikes on the day.

At 138 pounds it was Layne Knisely (17-4) taking third place after defeating Owen St. Andre of Parma Western in the consolation finals via pin fall in 4:52; at 144 pounds it was Gabriel Erwin (17-5) taking third place after taking a hard fought 7-6 decision win over Union City’s Montana Connell in the consolation finals; at 175 pounds it was Jacob Britten (21-2) taking down Alexander Trudell of Parma Western via pin fall in 2:38 to take home the bronze medal; at 215 pounds it was Matthew Blankenship (19-3) defeating Parma Western’s Aidan Duncan via an exciting 3-2 decision in the third place match to take bronze; and at 126 pounds it was Perry Lake (20-3) bringing home the bronze with a quick pin fall win over Hunter Swatosh of Lake Orion in :31 seconds to garner third place.

Also bringing home a medal for Bronson on the day was Carson Norton with a fourth place finish at 165 pounds and Jacob Dixon with a fifth place finish at 190 pounds.

Tekonsha Indians

The Tekonsha Indians had two wrestlers make the trip to Battle Creek Central as Wyatt Medcalf competed at 285 pounds while Bryan Smith competed at 132 pounds.

Smith went 1-2 on the day, earning a forfeit win over Trevor White of Lakeview in the prelim round, while Medcalf went 0-2 on the day.

The Union City Chargers and Bronson Vikings will finish out their Big 8 dual meet schedule on Wednesday at Union City, as they both prepare for the Big 8 conference championship tournament next Saturday and then a much anticipated Team District Finals matchup the following week.

Tekonsha will continue to work towards the MHSAA postseason as their regular season comes to a close next week.

Final Weight Class Results

106 pounds- Logan O’Connors (28-4) of John Glenn HS-Westland over Nakayla Dawson (29-2) of John Glenn HS-Westland via SV-1 4-2113 pounds- Jaxon Sanchez (24-3) of Grandville over Robert Dawson (22-7) of John Glenn HS-Westland via pin fall in 1:10120 pounds- Jace Morgan (31-2) of Adams over JP Culver (33-3) of Vicksburg via pin fall in 2:49126 pounds- Josh Vasquez (25-2) of Grandville over Austin Gyorkos (29-6) of Plainwell via a 13-2 MD132 pounds- Landyn Crance (30-2) of Union City over Xavier Carpentier (23-5) of Grandville via SV-1 8-6138 pounds- Matthew Irwin (37-4) of John Glenn HS-Westland over Aidan Taylor (23-5) of Union City via forfeit144 pounds- Dayton Rupert (30-1) of Lakeview over Kamden Hood (29-9) of John Glenn HS-Westland via 5-3 decision150 pounds- Jake Jonker (32-3) of Kenowa Hills over Drew Seekman (18-5) of Bronson via a 7-2 decision157 pounds- Justin Gorman (28-0) of Grandville over Jacob Kennedy (31-9) of John Glenn HS-Westland via pin fall in 4:47165 pounds- Trammel Robinson (32-1) of Plainwell over Cole Grifhorst (21-7) of Grandville via a 12-4 MD175 pounds- Max Herrera (18-8) of Grandville over Luke Lyons (26-9) of Plainwell via a 10-3 decision190 pounds- Micah Wellbaum (20-5) of Lake Orion over Tyler Preuss (26-6) of Plainwell via a 5-0 decision215 pounds- Grady Iobe (24-1) of Union City over Kaijehl Williams (20-1) of Battle Creek Central via pin fall in 5:30285 pounds- Judah Kinne (22-0) of Lake Orion over Noah Iobe (29-5) of Mendon via a 9-2 decision

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Union City, Bronson clean up at BC Central Wrestling Invite