Indians, Redskins place at Palace

Both Tecumseh and Clinton had wrestlers place at the Palace of Auburn Hills in the individual state finals on Saturday, March 14.

Clinton junior Jesse Sexton lost a 24-8 tech fall to the defending 152-pound champion, Brandon Zeerip, of Hesperia and finished second in the state in Division 4.

Zeerip went undefeated his senior year at 65-0 and the title bout was his 251st career victory, making him second all-time in Michigan. He finished just nine wins behind his brother Justin Zeerip (U-of-M). Sexton won his bracket matches by decision to advance to the final. He closed his season at 53-4.

“Jesse wrestled a tough kid and the coaches are very proud of Jesse and they way he wrestled,” said Clinton coach Kevin Beazley. “The nice thing is that Jesse is only a junior and will be back next year.”

Clinton (41-7) had five other wrestlers advance to the individual finals including Andrew Tice (119), Connor Koester (135), Rob Statmas (171), Aaron Tice (215) and Stephen Cooley (215).

“It was a great weekend for the Redskins,” said Beazley.

Tecumseh's highest placer was Kyle Connors with a fourth place finish at 285 pounds. The THS junior was pinned in the opening round to Gaylord senior Brian Bliss but won four straight matches to advance to the third place bout. He followed with a win by pin against Jake Darling of Coopersville in the first consolation round. A late takedown secured Connors a 3-1 victory against Mike Smrcina of Muskegon Reeths-Puffer to end the first day of state wrestling. On Saturday, Connors faced Lowell junior Connor Kruse and shut him out 3-0 to set up a rematch with Gaylord's Bliss. In his rematch with Bliss, Connors earned revenge in the way of a 1-0 victory to advance to the third place match.
Connors lost the third place match by pin to Mike Verbeke of Marysville and closed his season out with all-state honors at 49-12.

Tecumseh's Drew Simpson advanced to state after placing third in the region. He finished eighth in the state meet with a record of 50-14. In his opening round match he lost by major decision (16-8) against Saginaw Arthur Hill senior John Atkins (49-4). In the first consolation round, Simpson took on Hazel Park senior Dominic Wiggins and won 12-2. In the second round Simpson beat Byron Center junior Brian Plummer with a 7-3 decision.

In the consolation semifinal, Simpson dropped a 3-2 decision to Sean Mather of Auburn Hills Avondale. Simpson again had to face Saginaw Arthur Hill's Atkins in the consolation final and lost 5-1 to finish eighth overall.

At 119-pounds, Tecumseh sophomore Collin Lesko carried a 23-9 record to the state meet after placing second in the region. Nick Tremble (40-6) of Sparta recorded an early takedown in the first round and held on to beat Lesko 5-2. In the first consolation round, Lesko squared off with Airport sophomore Mike Sindone and won 8-7 after scoring a late near fall. In the consolation blood round, Lesko wrestled with Dominick Sindone from Airport and fell in a 1-0 heartbreaker.