BY JEFF CHANEY
BATTLE CREEK — The St. Johns and Lowell wrestling teams apear to be on a collision course for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 2 team championship.
Both teams made easy work of their quarterfinal opponents Friday night in quarterfinal action. After a close start, St. Johns crushed Mason 61-11, while Lowell handled Holly 54-15.
The other two quarterfinals were a different story, though.
In the Tecumseh and Greenville quarterfinal, Tecumseh needed a major decision victory from junior Anthony Lesko in the last match of the evening at 145 pounds. He did just that, beating Greenville’s Jake Hopkins 11-0.
The irony of that match is that last year those two also matched up in Battle Creek. Last year during the semifnals, Lesko needed to pin Hopkins for the Indians to beat Greenville in the semifinals. He was unable to do that, and the Yellow Jackets moved on to the finals.
In Friday night’s last quarterfinal, Allegan senior Taylor Simaz needed at least a technical fall or pin for his Tigers to beat Stevensville-Lakeshore and move on to Saturday’s semifinals.
Simaz, who will wrestle at Cornell University next year with his brother Cam Simaz, pinned Mark Cox in 1 minute, 4 seconds.
That match ended an exciting first day at the MHSAA Team Finals.