BELDING — It was a happy homecoming for Whitehall wrestler Gavin Craner Wednesday night, and another successful day at the office for the Vikings as they rolled to an eighth regional championship in nine years.
Whitehall easily dispatched Belding, 44-29, and then routed Tri-County, 61-9, to secure its near-annual trip to Kalamazoo for the state quarterfinals. The Vikings find out their quarterfinal opponent Sunday when the sport’s seeding committee reveals the bracket for the final eight.
Craner, a Whitehall junior, made his return to the Belding mat after two years as a Black Knight prior to transferring to Whitehall. Perhaps poetically, Craner was the first Viking to take the mat, as the semifinal match started at his weight class, 175 pounds.
He didn’t spend much time on the mat, pinning both his opponents early in the first period to remain undefeated for the season, but said it was good to reconnect with his former Belding teammates and coaches.
“It was tough, but they’re still family,” Craner said. “They did really good this season, so it was nice to see them...I have some really good friends over there.”
Whitehall coach Justin Zeerip said Craner handled his return to his old gym very well.
“I thought he did great,” Zeerip said. “He wrestled hard and got the fall in both matches. Gavin does all the right things on and off the mat.”
Belding won the next three bouts after Craner’s pin, but the Vikings picked up three wins by forfeit after that and cruised to the win. Whitehall added four more wins in the dual, earning bonus points in three of them; Nolan Taranko and Darnell Mack scored pins, and Ryne Christensen got a technical fall. Caden Varela won his bout by decision.
“In the Belding match, the guys did a great job getting bonus points,” Zeerip said. “A couple of those guys got off their backs, which was huge. Against Tri-County, I thought we wrestled really well as a team.
“I’m really proud of our team for this regional championship. They deserve it. They put in a lot of time and worked really hard this off-season.”
The Tri-County match was even less taxing on Whitehall, which saw Cody Manzo and Blake Morningstar pick up early pins. The Vikings scored the final 46 points of the dual after Tri-County trailed 15-9 early on. Taranko, Varela, Christensen and Mack improved to 2-0 on the night with wins - Mack, like Craner, boasts an unbeaten mark - and Liam Leeke, Blake English, Ryan Goodrich and Jason Smith got wins in the finals too.
“I think we wrestled really good tonight,” Craner said. “We looked really good. We’ve just got to close up some things.”
Whitehall will have ample chance to clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up, as 13 wrestlers are set to compete in Saturday’s individual regional tournament. That becomes the team’s new focus for the next few days. After that, eyes will turn to Kalamazoo, where the Vikings are in solid position to make yet another appearance at the state final four and maybe make it to the finals for a third time in four seasons.
“We’re definitely curious who we’ll have in that first round,” Zeerip said. “We’ll see what comes our way Sunday morning.”
