Brother Rice, Groves Wrestlers Struggle At Regionals

CANTON – Brother Rice and Groves wrestlers competed in the Division One regionals at Plymouth High School Saturday, but only one wrestler qualified for the individual state finals in two weeks at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The top four wrestlers from each weight class in the double elimination tournament moved on and despite bringing a combined 11 wrestlers to the meet, the Birmingham schools couldn’t match perennial powerhouses like Detroit Catholic Central.

Powell continues successful freshman year for Brother Rice

In the 152-pound weight class, Shon Powell breezed through the first two rounds of regionals and quickly qualified for the individual state finals.

 The Brother Rice freshman finished second place in the weight class after picking up only his third loss of the season in the finals to Andrew Garcia of Detroit Catholic Central in a 7-3 match. 

But the loss did nothing to diminish his impressive run this season.

“Coming in as a freshman, going to states, I’m pretty happy about it,” Powell said. “It would’ve been better to win that match, but I wrestled him earlier this season and won; he got his revenge (this time).”

Powell pinned his first two opponents, Alex Coe from Northville and Dan Wagner from Southfield, controlling those matches from the start. Garcia didn’t let Powell get that sort of advantage.

“He came out and wanted some vengeance,” Powell said. “He came out wrestling his match and controlled me a little more than I wanted him to. I wanted to work my stuff. He took control of the match and started getting takedowns.”

Upset about the loss, Powell said it he will use this to fuel him in two weeks at the Palace.

“I’m not going to say loss is a good thing, but it’s something to keep me hungry for states,” Powell said. “Whenever I have a close match at states, I can reflect on this and remember that this doesn’t feel good.”

Brother Rice co-head coach Allan Takata expects Powell to have a good run during the tournament.   

“I do expect him to go deep in the states,” Takata said. “When you wrestle Shon the first thing that strikes you is his quickness. He’s very quick and he puts moves together like I haven’t seen a freshman put moves together in a long time.” 

Heartbreaking end of the season for Groves seniors

seniors Chris Chegash, Jeff Anderson and Michael Hajto didn’t make the top four in their respective weight classes and went home Saturday without punching a ticket to state finals.

Hajto gave the Falcons their best chance at qualifying. The senior had a tough draw in the opening round against Anthony Abro of Canton and lost his opening match on a 7-0 decision. 

The senior bounced right back with a 15-5 win in the elimination bracket over Joe Wiles of Warren De La Salle, putting him one win away from a third or fourth place finish in the 189-pound weight class.

“I thought my 189-pounder had a great shot (at qualifying), it’s just the luck of the draw sometimes,” Groves Coach Joseph Jones said.

Hajto lost his third match against Mouhamad Soukar of Dearborn-Fordson on a 10-5 decision, a close match until Soukar hit Hajto with a flurry of takedowns.

Jones said it would be hard for the program to say goodbye to all three seniors.

“It’s heartbreaking, especially for a senior when you spend the whole off-season preparing for this day,” Jones said. “Three good kids, its tough for them and tough for me.”

Softening the blow is the large group of underclassman wrestler at Groves. While four seniors are leaving the program, 26 students next year. Jones is optimistic about the upcoming year.

"We're in a great position for next year," Jones said. "We’re going to have a good offseason and continue to get better.”