Celebration muted after Fowlerville wins wrestling regional by injury

FOWLERVILLE — Nobody was quite sure how to react.

Is it OK to cheer? To applaud politely?

Or should everyone just maintain an eerie silence?

Winning a regional championship is a huge deal, particularly when it’s a program’s first in a quarter century, but the circumstances under which Fowlerville’s wrestling team captured one Wednesday night left even the winners feeling uneasy.

Fowlerville won its first regional championship since 1998 when Jackson Northwest junior Kayden Beach was temporarily knocked out and couldn’t continue his match against freshman Connor Stankov, who took the mat for the final match needing a pin.

The injury default gave the Gladiators the six points they needed to edge the seventh-ranked Mounties, 36-35.

Afterward, Fowlerville coach Dan Coon quietly accepted the championship trophy from his athletic director, Brian Osborn. There was no hoisting of the hardware, no jubilant celebration out of respect for the injured Northwest wrestler.

There were smiling faces wearing purple and gold, but otherwise it was as surreal and low-key a championship celebration imaginable.

“It wasn’t an easy one to celebrate,” Stankov said. “It was pretty hard for me to process and get that through. I’m glad we won. I wish it would’ve been under different circumstances. At the end of the day, a win’s a win. I’m excited to go to states with the team.”

Fowlerville will wrestle in the state quarterfinals at 6:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24 at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo. The state finals draw will be announced Sunday.

“That is not the way anybody wants to finish a match,” Coon said. “If that would’ve happened halfway in between, it would’ve been a whole lot different. With that being the final match of the night, nobody wants to win that way. Everybody wants to win still wrestling. It’s unfortunate that had to happen.”

In a dual that was tied five times, Fowlerville took a 30-24 lead when George Daniel won at 285 pounds when Northwest’s Aidyn Williams was disqualified while trailing 11-4 with 51 seconds left in the match.

The Mounties got a pin at 106 and a technical fall at 113 when, in a key development, Gavinn Stankov avoided being pinned.

That gave Northwest a 35-30 lead going into the final match, which Beach was leading 6-2 when Connor Stankov escaped and ended up on top of him with 1:29 left in the second period. In the process, Stankov’s knee hit Beach’s head.

While Beach was being tended to, the voice of a woman yelling, “It’s not worth it, Kayden!” broke through the silence.

“To be honest, with that match I just got lucky,” Stankov said. “I didn’t know what I was doing really. I always go out there and give it my all. That’s what I did today. I got something out of it. I really hope the kid’s OK.

“I tried to get a tripod, where you’re on two hands and get up on your legs. He grabbed an ankle and I just fell with it. My knee, unfortunately, landed on his head.”

Two Gladiators who fell behind during their matches wound up getting pins. Jesse Johnson got a pin at 144 after trailing 4-3 entering the third period and Waylon Lamkin got a pin at 165 with nine seconds left in the second period after trailing 2-0 after one period.

Richard Davis had Fowlerville’s other pin at 190. Winning close decisions were Dalton Daniel by a 4-2 score at 126 and Ben Blyveis by a 2-1 score at 150.

“We just stayed in it every single match,” said Blyveis, who won his 100th career match in the semifinals. “This was going to be a dogfight. We knew that for the last week; they knew that. It’s not the most fortunate ending, but every single one of our guys on our team worked their butt off and I’m happy with where we’re at.”

Fowlerville used four freshmen, three sophomores, five juniors and only two seniors in its lineup against Northwest.

“I kind of figured this would set us up for next year, I really did,” Coon said. “They had nine seniors in their lineup. We’ve got some freshmen who just won’t quit out there, and a lot of other people filled some empty voids for us.”

It’s the first regional championship in a bracketed sport for Fowlerville since the 2006 football team advanced to the state semifinals.

The Gladiators had no trouble reaching the championship match, winning 76-6 over Lansing Sexton. The Gladiators had eight pins and two technical falls in 11 contested matches.

Northwest beat Tecumseh, 57-15, in the other semifinal.

Division 1, Regional 102

Second-ranked Hartland passed its first real test of the postseason, winning 52-27 over fifth-ranked Clarkston in the regional final.

The Eagles won 66-6 over West Bloomfield in the semifinals.

Hartland has won 22 straight regional championships, the second-longest streak in the state. Only Division 4 New Lothrop with 23 consecutive titles has a longer streak.

Hartland will wrestle in the state quarterfinals at 2:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24 at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo.

Division 1, Regional 104

Down 32-16 to Holt in the regional semifinal, Brighton won three straight matches on a pin by Travis Richardson at 150 pounds, a major decision by Zak Knapp at 157 and a 4-3 decision by Mason Gardner at 165 to get within 32-29 with two matches left.

But Holt pulled away from there to eliminate Brighton for the third straight year as Ty Hafke won by technical fall over Lukas Stone at 175. A forfeit in the final match gave the Rams a 43-29 victory.

Holt went on to win the regional championship with a 46-21 victory over Portage Central.

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.