KALAMAZOO — Hart keeps knocking at the door of earning its first-ever state semifinal bid, but unfortunately the No. 5 seed Pirates were turned back in a very close quarterfinal match for the second straight year Friday, losing 35-24 to No. 4 Allegan.
Hart led the match 24-19 after an impressive technical fall by Halen Boos at 132 pounds and felt great about its chances with regional champ Ty Thomas on deck for the next bout. However, the Bulldogs' Luke Wedge, a state qualifier in his own right, was up to the challenge and pulled off a big upset for his team by winning 15-8. Allegan didn't lose another bout.
Kole Thomas, another regional champ, was handed his own surprise defeat by an Allegan state qualifier, Jacob Collier, at 113 pounds by a 10-7 score to help swing the match Allegan's way.
"Those two matches
were big for us," Hart coach Rocky Smith said. "Hats off to Allegan. They wrestled great
today. I don't think we wrestled our best, but they
wrestled great today. They earned it. Their kids worked
hard. We're just hoping to get over that hump. Trying to (take) the next step. It's just so close."
Hart dropped the first two bouts of the dual, but things started looking rosy for Hart when star Alex Hicks delivered a pin at 190 pounds. Adrian Lara picked up a decision win at 285, and freshman Jordan Thies came up big at 106 by scoring a pin of Sullivan Morgan, who normally wrestles at 113 but dropped down to face Thies.
"Jordan's had a great year," Smith said. "He's a pretty special kid
out there as a freshman. We're looking forward to what he's going to
accomplish, even next weekend at the state meet and the next (three) years.
"That was a huge pin
for us. To be honest, I thought, once we got that pin, we were right
where we needed to be."
Hart's Caden VanGelderen (right) goes for a takedown of Allegan's Cooper Prentice during Friday's quarterfinal match at Wings Event Center. VanGelderen earned a win in his bout, but the Pirates fell to Allegan 35-24.
Caden VanGelderen and Boos delivered impressive bonus-point wins for Hart later on, but the Pirates fell a little bit short.
Even though Hart was highly unlikely to advance any farther had they made it to the semis - Dundee is one of the best teams in the entire country regardless of enrollment and crushed all comers on the way to its eighth straight championship - the milestone of reaching Saturday is one the Pirates really want to accomplish.
"We focus on the task
at hand," Smith said. "We just want to make that next step to
Saturday and then we'll worry about who we wrestle on
Saturday. We're just trying to focus and win that first
match and get there. Overall, I'm very proud of the kids.
We've had a great year. We're very, very young. The kids had a great year. This doesn't define our season at all."
Smith said the Pirates can work towards that milestone in future seasons with just a little more offseason commitment. The close loss Friday should only stoke the wrestlers' motivation to improve.
"These duals are won in the offseason," Smith said. "We've got to
commit a little more to the weight room. We've got to commit a
little more to the offseason wrestling. We've got to go to a
little bit bigger tournaments and push ourselves a little bit more.
That's huge for the next step, and we have to get more kids doing that."
