Dundee extrends string of state wrestling titles to seven in a row
KALAMAZOO – Trey Parker was out cold.
“He shot in, and we hit heads,” he said. “I just went out.”
The Dundee wrestler said he had never been knocked out before.
It came at a terrible time.
Parker was wrestling for Dundee in the Division 3 state finals and held a 5-3 lead in the third period of his match. Since he could not continue, his opponent was given an injury default.
Take three potential points away from Dundee and give six to Whitehall.
That would have been devastating for most high school wrestling teams.
Dundee is not most high school wrestling teams.
The Vikings rallied after Parker’s freak injury to beat Whitehall 49-20 Saturday at the Wings Events Center to win their seventh-straight Division 3 state championship.
“Unfortunately, he was unable to continue,” said Nate Hall, who co-coaches Dundee with Garrett Stevens. “The kids responded really well. They have a lot of maturity.”
And even more talent.
Dundee got pins from Jeremy Amrhein (138), Blake Cosby (144), Kole Katschor (165), Haydn Nutt (113) and Braden Broderick (120) in the finals along with technical falls from Cameron Chinavare (132) and Mason Katschor (106).
But their three biggest victories came on simple decisions.
First of all, it was Kade Kluce getting the match started with a hard-fought 8-2 win at 126.
Chinavarre’s technical fall followed by pins from Amrhein and Cosby pushed the Dundee lead to 20-0.
At that point, Whitehall was hoping to rip momentum away from the Vikings.
They sent their best wrestler – undefeated Darnell Mack – to the mat.
Donny Beaufait was not intimidated.
The Dundee sophomore wrestled a brilliantly controlled match, took advantage of his openings and walked away with a 4-1 win.
“I’ve been watching his matches,” Beaufait said of Mack. “I had confidence in my abilities. I just had to trust my own work.”
Dundee had plenty of trust in Beaufait.
“Donny wrestled great,” Hall said. “The big thing about Donny is that he has so much athletic ability. He has more tools than he needs in most matches.”
Parker appeared to be building on Dundee’s momentum and lead when he had to pull out of his match, giving Whitehall its first six points of the match.
Dundee quickly responded with a fall by Kole Katschor to go up 29-6, but two straight pins by Whitehall sliced the Viking lead to 11 points.
Aiden Massingill then stepped into the stoplight to take on an opponent ranked No. 12 in the state.
“I didn’t know that,” he admitted.
It was good not to know.
“It helps,” Massingill said. “It helps take away the nerves.”
Massingill gutted out a 6-4 win, then Landon King saved Dundee some points by only losing a simple decision despite giving up more than 60 pounds in the heavyweight match.
“We’ve been doing alright this year,” Massingill said of Dundee’s unheralded big men.
From there, the technical fall by Mason Katschor and pins by Nutt and Broderick fueled the Dundee celebration.
“We filled two sections and were overflowing into the next one,” Hall said while gazing up into the hockey arena. “This is a community. That’s why this is so special.”
The coach noted that a string of seven titles in a row means that it is not just one group of exceptional athletes powering Dundee.
“A lot of these guys were up there in the stands watching a few years ago,” Hall said. “You get your chance at four years to put it together. It’s a new team every year, but the same program. We lose seniors every year, but new guys come in.”
The seniors on this year’s team are Massingill, Parker, Chinavare, Kluce and Cooper Buhl.
“That’s pretty cool,” Massingill said when asked about being a state champion in all four years of his high school career. “Not a lot of people get to say that.”
“It feels great,” Parker added. “Overall, this is a great group of people.”
Dundee, which wrestled an exceptionally tough regular-season schedule to get ready for the state tournament, finishes with an 18-5 record in dual meets.
FINALS
Dundee 49, Whitehall 20
126: Kade Kluce, D, d. Nolan Taranko, 8-2.
132: Cameron Chinavare, D, tf. Caden Varela, 20-2.
138: Jeremy Amrhein, D, p. Ryne Christensen :41.
144: Blake Cosby, D, p. Liam Leeke 1:38.
150: Donny Beaufait, D, d. Darnell Mack 4-1.
157: Ryan Goodrich, W, injury default over Trey Parker
165: Kole Katschor, D, p. Blake English 4:12.
175: Gavin Craner, W, p. Rocco Redmon 2:42.
190: Wyatt Jenkins, W, p. Quinton Lephew 3:39
215: AIden Massingill, D, d. Blake Morningstar 6-4
285: Jason Smith, W, d. Landon King 4-0
106: Mason Katschor, D, tf. Cody Manzo 26-11
113: Haydn Nutt, D, p. Kolten Weiler, 1:58.
120: Braden Broderick, D, p. Max Krukowski 1:16.
SEMIFINALS
KALAMAZOO — Mason Katschor didn't panic.
The Dundee freshman found himself on his back, fighting for his wrestling life in the opening seconds of his match in the Division 3 state semifinals Saturday.
"He got a little excited and got caught in a cradle," said Garrett Stevens, co-coach of Dundee with Nate Hall. "He was just a little overzealous."
Katschor kept his wits about him, fought out of the bad situation and ended up with a first-period pin.
"He didn't panic," Stevens said. "It's like swimming. If you panic, you die."
Katschor's win was a big one for Dundee. The Vikings were staring at a rare deficit at the time, trailing 16-7. If he had been pinned, they would have trailed by 15 points.
"That was a big swing — a 12-point swing," Stevens said.
Instead, Katschor brought his team back within 16-13, launching a run that carried Dundee to a 49-22 victory.
Katschor admits that the urge to panic was there.
"I thought to myself, 'You've got to get off your back. You've got to fight it off for your team,'" he said.
How close was Katschor to getting pinned?
"Pretty close," he admitted with a a grin.
Constantine and Dundee also met in the semifinals last year. The Falcons have grown up a lot since then.
"They really competed hard," Stevens said. "Last year we came out and kind of punched them in the mouth, and they seemed to lay down a little."
But Stevens appreciated the fight. It will help get the Vikings ready for Whitehall in the 3:45 p.m. finals.
"A little adversity is good," he said. "We'll regroup and get ready for the finals."
Haydn Nutt (113) followed Katschor's pin, then Braden Broderick (120) won by technical fall.
That put the Vikings on top 24-16 and they never looked back, finishing with a major decision by Kade Klude (126), pins by Cameron Chinavare (132), Kelton Gross (130), Blake Cosby (144) and Donny Beaufait (150) and a win by Trey Parker (157).
Earlier, Kole Katschor (175) won a major decision, and Landon King (215) won.
SEMIFINALS
Dundee 49, Constantine 22
165: Carter Godfrey, C, p. Rocco Redmon, 4:42.
175: Kole Katschor, D, md. Dathan Smith, 11-3.
190: Gregg Reed, C, p. Cooper Buhl, :40.
215: Landon King, D, d. Greg Crawford 8-4.
285: Bennett VandenBerg, C, md. Aiden Massingill 9-0.
106: Mason Katschor, D, p. Ashtin Forrester, 1:12.
113: Haydn Nutt, D, p. Ethan Fugate, :54.
120: Braden Broderick, D, tf. Jace Vavul 17-0.
126: Kade Kluce, D, md. Preston Like 13-1.
132: Cameron Chinavare, D, p. Bear Geibe 1:50.
138: Kelton Gross, C, p. Jeremy Amrhein, 2:34.
144: Blake Cosby, D, d. Michael Featherstone 1:45.
150: Donny Beaufait, D, p. Bucky Cramer, 2:46.
157: Trey Parker, D, d. Brody Jones 3-2
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Dundee extrends string of state wrestling titles to seven in a row
