Whitehall senior wrestling stars Gavin Craner, Wyatt Jenkins go out on top as state champions

For the second straight year, Craner was never challenged in the state meet. He dispatched his first two opponents by first-period pins, rolled to a technical fall in the semifinals against Gladstone's Trevor Thorbahn, and blanked Dundee's Rocco Redmon, the No. 2 seed entering the tournament, in an 11-0 major decision in the finals, the first match he wrestled in the individual postseason to go the distance. He ended the season at 54-0, and in two years at Whitehall, Craner won all 112 of his matches.

It was the fifth straight season a Viking was an unbeaten state champion; Ira Jenkins did it in 2021 and '22, Shane Cook did it in 2023, and Craner has accomplished the feat the past two seasons.

Whitehall coach Justin Zeerip noted that Craner earned a bonus-point win against every single opponent he faced this year, and Craner added he believed that was true of both his Viking seasons.

"I feel lucky to have coached him," Zeerip said. "It's not surprising, either, with how hard he works and how seriously he takes the sport and how he tries to improve himself. I know it's why he's so successful. To see him go out and dominate the way he does - and his leadership skills are great too - it's really cool to see him do that."

Craner's talent is prodigious, but as Zeerip noted, the ability to so thoroughly dominate opponents also comes from his preparation.

"It's just a mindset, working hard in the practice room to know no one else is prepared for you," Craner said.

Though he plans to redshirt in his first year at CMU, Craner will spend the next couple of months getting healthy after long and grueling football and wrestling seasons, after which he'll continue preparing for the increased level of competition in college. After all, he doesn't merely want to wrestle in Mount Pleasant; he wants to star there.

"I want to go to the open (meets) and improve a lot and definitely crack the starting lineup my sophomore year and have a good college career," Craner said. "Some kids are happy to be at the Division I level, but I have goals beyond that. I want to be an All-American. I'm chasing national titles."

Jenkins dominated his first three opponents in the state meet with first-period pins, a result of what he called a better mental approach to the finals than he'd taken in his previous trips to Ford Field. Along the way, he earned his 150th career victory.

"My whole four years, I used to make the tournament way bigger than what it was," Jenkins said. "In those first three matches, it almost felt like the wrestling (practice) room to me."

The state championship match against No. 3 seed John Petersen of Hillsdale was Jenkins' match, too, but wasn't quite as easy as the first three. Jenkins came out on top, 4-3, scoring the decisive takedown in the second period before hanging on for the victory, even as he was assessed stalling points down the stretch that Zeerip was unsure were merited.

Jenkins said he felt confident after taking the lead that he would finish the job.

"Once he got the takedown, we felt like he was in control of the match," Zeerip said. "It's really exciting for him to see the culmination of his hard work."

The match carried all sorts of meaning for Jenkins, who missed almost the entire 2023-24 wrestling season after a broken neck suffered at a football camp. On top of that, his grandfather, Robert, is in poor health, and Wyatt promised him before leaving for Detroit that he would bring home the championship for him.

"Making a promise to someone...and being able to come through with that and show how much you care about and love them, it meant a lot to me," Jenkins said.

The title also made it three combined championships in the family after Wyatt's older brother, Ira, a current Michigan Wolverine wrestler, won two as a Viking. Wyatt is headed for collegiate wrestling at Southeast Community College in Nebraska next season, and hopes ending his high school career on top is just the beginning.

"Right now, it's just working on technique and a little conditioning," Jenkins said. "That state championship was a small portion of what I'm trying to achieve. I want to go win two juco national titles and then transfer up to see if I can win national titles at the NCAA level."