After winning the heavyweight championship bout of Saturday’s Dave Elliott Memorial Invitational, Clinton’s Don Stump III yelled and pointed into the crowd to his family.
His dad, Don Stump Jr., who was on hand, also wrestled for Clinton, but never won at this invitational, with a best finish of second in 1996.
Now, the Stumps have a title.
The win by the younger Stump, who was also named upper weight MVP after sweeping with four pins, punctuated a solid effort by the Redskins, who finished second with 197 points on the weight of 10 placers and three champions.
Clinton was neck-and-neck with eventual champions Coldwater (204) right to the end.
“I’ve never had an award for most valuable wrestler before,” Stump said. “My coaches kept telling me to fight and fight, and it was good for me.”
Tecumseh had three individual titles, as well, and finished fourth with 159.5 points, behind Woodhaven (189) in third, but ahead of Manchester (132) in fifth.
Onsted came next among county teams in seventh at 95.5, followed by Blissfield in 10th with 71, Madison in 14th with 21, Morenci, who only fielded two wrestlers, in 17th with 11, and Clinton’s B team rounding out the field in 18th with eight points.
Clinton’s Noah Comar, ranked No. 1 in the state in Division 4 at 125, won all of his matches via pin, needing just 3:47 to sweep his way to the top of the podium.
Freshman 103-pounder AJ Baxter took two of his four matches via pins, before knocking Manchester’s Drew Gebhart from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 7-1 decision in the final.
“That was a good win for (AJ),” Clinton coach Jeff Rolland said. “That’s a good, good kid from Manchester, and he’s solid, so AJ was looking forward to that. He thought he’d get a chance to wrestle (Gebhart) today, so he’s been preparing that way, so he did a great job today.”
Riley Jeffery at 135 and Eathan Hicks at 160 finished in second place, while Garrett Phillips (145) and Christian Minard (119) took third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively .
Jeffrey Konz (140) finished fifth, while Brandon Beach (112) and Anthony Stockdale (130) rounded out Clinton’s placers with a pair of sixth-place finishes.
The Indians’ efforts were headed up by the winning efforts of Kyle Yuhas (140), Ryan Roberts at 189, and Gabe Bechtol, who took all four of his matches, including a pin of Hicks in the final, at 160.
Joshua Hilton (119) took the lone second place for Tecumseh, while Rolando Robison (130) finished third. Andrew Winkler (145) and Brendan Dyer (152) each finished fifth to round out the placers for Tecumseh.
“We had a couple of kids wrestle above their seed, and the three guys that won it were seeded first, and they came to do what they should’ve done,” said Tecumseh coach AJ Marry. “They went out and took first, and they dominated their weight classes.”
Cole Wixom was Onsted’s best finisher of the day, coming in second at 145 pounds, while 119-pounder Dylan Budd ended up in third place for the Wildcats.
Marcus Rinehart was fourth for Onsted at 189, while Holly Morse (103) and Matthew Wilharms (171) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, for the Wildcats.
“I think we did a good job,” said Onsted coach Joe Kokenakes. “...It was Wixom’s first time down to 145, so for him to make the finals, it shows where he should be, and the other kids just wrestled tough the whole time, so it was just nice to see.”
Brian Goetz led the way for Blissfield at 215, taking home second-place honors, while 189-pounder Evan Moore and 160-pounder Lucas Coopshaw secured fifth- and sixth-place finishes in their respective weight classes for the Royals.
Both Madison and Morenci finished with one placer.
Trojans’ 125-pounder Nick Adams was fourth, while Camden Miller’s fifth place finish at 160 led Morenci.
