Wrestlers bow to St. Ed’s

Dominic Russ was one of five Cardinals to win at Cleveland St. Edward. Photo by Dan Nilsen LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Davison wrestlers finished up the regular season with their toughest opponent last Saturday, losing, 52-18, to Cleveland St. Edward, the top-ranked team in Ohio and the No. 2 squad in nation, according to Amateur Wrestling News.

The Cardinals did get five individual victories in the dual, from Lincoln Olson at 103 pounds, Justin Oliver at 125, Dominic Russ at 130, Thomas Garty at 135 and Gramm Goyette at 160. Davison also lost, 39-28, to Olentangy, another top-10 team in Ohio.

The Cardinals were coming off their 14th consecutive Big Nine Conference championship the previous night at Flushing, and handled the round-trip to Cleveland and both duals all in one day.

In the final Big Nine competition ever, Davison crowned seven champions: Olson at 103, Jacob Madrigal at 112, Derek Humphrey at 119, Oliver at 125, Russ at 130, Ryan Thick at 189 and Trevor Thomas at 215. Taking second were Drew Schlak at 135, Goyette at 160 and Jake Ellis at 171.

The Cards were missing starters Matt Miller, Patrick Rooker, Jordan Cooks, Charles Smith and Carter Stoddard, all of whom were “sick, injured or in between,” according to assistant coach Kent Elliott.

In their final Michigan dual on Feb. 1, the Cardinals beat Clarkston, 43-29.

Davison, ranked second all season in Michigan, opens the Div. 1 tournament tonight with a team district at Port Huron. The Cardinals wrestle Grand Blanc in the semifinals, while Port Huron and Port Huron Northern meet in the other bracket. The winner advances to the Midland regional next Wednesday.

All four of those schools will be at Davison on Saturday for an individual district, along with Alpena, Bay City Central, Carman-Ainsworth, Flushing, Midland, Midland Dow, Saginaw, Saginaw Heritage, Traverse City Central and Traverse City West.

Ten Cardinals enter the district ranked among the top 10 in their class by michigangrappler.com, although some of their current weight classes are different from their ranked weight. Olson has been No. 1 at 103 all season, Oliver is No. 1 at 119, Cooks is No. 1 at 160, Smith is No. 3 at 112, Miller is No. 3 at 130, Garty is No. 4 at 140, Russ is No. 6 at 125, Ty Wildmo is No. 7 at 152, Rooker is No. 8 at 145 and Goyette has grabbed the No. 10 spot at 160.

The top four placers in each class advance to the individual regionals Feb. 18, also at Davison.

“The next three weeks are such a brutal meat-grinder,” said Elliott, a two-time state champion in the early 1980s at Davison. “You’ve got to stay healthy, stay committed, stay focused and do all the little things. We’ll see what happens. We’ve got a young group, but I’ll take our team over anybody else’s right now.”