REGIONAL CHAMPS! Gladstone Headed To K-Zoo

Click the thumbnais to see photos, videos, and listen to interviews wih Cole Potier, Michael Brazeau, Bryce Carlson, and Coach Jeff Brazeau

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone Braves won their first title since 2016 Wednesday night by beating the Cheboygan Chiefs, 80-0, in the semifinals before taking a nailbiter from the Kinglsey Stags, 46-34, in the championship.

It's the first regional crown for the Braves since 2016, when the Braves last hosted the regionals and won an improbable championship over Roscommon when heavyweight Mason Frederick pulled an upset in the final match of the night to seal an emotional 40-32 win.

Wednesday night, the Gladstone-Kingsley match followed a similar script, going down to the final match before 171-pounder Cole Potier got a pin to send te Braves to Kalamazoo.

"We told the kids coming in that it was going to be a grind," Gladstone Coach Jeff Brazeau said. "We needed to win matches that we didn't win the last time we dueled them, and we can't give up pins. The kids came out on top tonight and it's great."

The Braves fell behind on the first match when the Stags' Sam Goethals pinned Braves freshman Bret Seger in just 13 seconds at 189 pounds.

But Gladstome quickly gained momentum as Hunter Potier posted a pin at 215 pounds in just ten seconds, and heavyweight Brett Boudcreau got a pin in 58 seconds. Then at 103 pounds, another freshman, Aidan Spriks got a pin over Charissa Desmond in 2:53. And at 112, Eli Terrian pinned Kingsley's Evan Trafford in 31 seconds. That gave Gladstone a 24-6 lead.

The Braves looked to be in good shape as 119-pounder Drew Hansen battled Gayn Merchant. This match was back-and-forth before Merchant got the pin with just 20 seconds left in the match.

Then at 125, senior Michael Brazeau struggled early in his match against sophomore Jon Pearson before finally getting the pin at 4:57 to give Gladstone a 30-12 lead.

"He was a lot stronger than I expected him to be," Brazeau said. "I've wrestled him before. He definitely had a plan going into the match. It was a little shaky. I had some things that I didn't do good, but I came through in the end, which I figured I would."

Austin Solis pinned Issac Grahn at 130 in 1:45 to give the Braves a 36-12 lead, but Justin Grahn got a pin for Kingsley in just 40 seconds against Adam Belanger at 135. Hunter Solis defeated Cameron Dundas on an 11-3 decision at 140 pounds to make it 40-18.

Kingsley wasn't done yet, needing four pins in the final four matches to win the title outright.

Stags senior Phillip Brown went up against Gladstone freshman Bryce Carlson ar 145 pounds. Brown won the match going away, 13-0, but Carlson avoided getting pinned, which meant four points instead of six for Kingsley.
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"It was hard," Carlson said, limping with a huge ice pack on his knee. "The kid was good. I just kept fighting. That's all we needed. Just not t0 get pinned. We needed those team points."

"We told him to go out there and give it your all," Coach Brazeau said. "Maybe you win the match, but do NOT get pinned. He wrestled tough and he came out with it."

Kingsley senior Aidan Shier and junior Kyden Fesseden came through with pins at 152 and 160, bringing the Stags to within 40-34 with one match to go at 171 pounds.

If Stags senior Kaden Patterson pinned Braves junior Cole Potier, the match would have been tied at 40-40, and Kingsley would have won the tiebreaker on number of total pins.

Potier needed to avoid being pinned, but he did much more than that. Potier dominated the match from start to finish, and appeared to have Patterson pinned on two different occassions in the first period, but did not get the call.

Finally, in the late in the second period, with Potier holding a commanding 10-2 lead, he got the pin, and much like Frederick's surprise win in 2016, the Braves celebration began.

"Everyone got me hyped up and I was jamming to music," Potier said. "It was on me to win. He just kept trying to throw me, so I slammed him down. I told the ref 'I've got him pinned' but he said 'not yet'. They wouldn't call the pin the first two times, but then I got him the third time."

"I told Cole to keep going at him," Coach Brazeau said after Potier didn't get the pin calls. "But Cole wrestled his butt off and we got the win. This is great!"

Gladstone will wrestle in the Division Three state finals against Montrose at 4:30 next Thursday, the 25th, at Kalamazoo's Wings Stadium. If they win, the Braves will immediately face the Hart-Alma winner in the state semifinals.

Another Upper Peninsula team will be in Kalamazoo as well. In Division Four, Iron Mountain won a tight 41-39 decision over Bark River-Harris, and then beat Charlevoix in the regional championship match. It's the first regional championship for the Mountaineers since 2011.

There is more wresting this weekend as the Individual Regionals are held in Grayling, with guys trying to make the state finals at Detroit's Ford Field.