By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
The Lakeshore Lancers will attempt to successfully defend its Southwest Michigan Wrestling Tournament championship on Saturday.
The Lancers, who host the tournament, defeated Bangor in 2004 to capture the championship.
Lakeshore had three champions and five runners-up in amassing 236 points.
Bangor, which had two champions, finished second with 173 points. Dowagiac took third with three champions and 172 points.
Niles finished fourth with 162.5. The Vikings did not have an individual champion, however, they did had three runners-up.
River Valley took fourth with 127 points and Brandywine fifth with 122. Rounding out the order of finish were Decatur, Watervliet, Coloma, Cassopolis, Buchanan, Benton Harbor, Lawton, Lake Michigan Catholic and Galien.
Expected to compete in Saturday's tournament along with Lakeshore, Dowagiac and Niles are Bangor, Benton Harbor, Brandywine, Buchanan, Cassopolis, Coloma, Covert, Lawton, Lake Michigan Catholic, River Valley, South Haven and Watervliet.
Wrestling is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Admission is $4 for adults and $1 for students.
Returning defending champions are Dowagiac's Jeromy Northrop (25-1) at 145-pounds; Cassopolis' Justin Tucker (31-1), who captured the 125-pound title in 2004, but is wrestling at 135-pounds this season; Lakeshore's Kyle Hammermeister, who won the 103-pound championship last year over Niles' Matt Poehlman, but is wrestling at 112-pounds this year; Lakeshore's Matt Wittman, who won the 152-pound championship last year, but is wrestling at 171-pounds this year; Lakeshore's Andy Gebhard, who won the 160-pound championship a year ago; River Valley's Mike Stein, who captured the 135-pound championship in 2004; and Coloma's Jesse Martin, who captured the 171-pound championship last year, but is wrestling at 215-pounds this year.
Returning second place finishers are Poehlman of Niles, and Drew Welke and Justin Agens, both of Lakeshore.
Lakeshore will be without Nathan Broehm, who was killed last Friday in an automobile accident. Broehm finished second for the Lancers at 130-pounds last year.
This tournament is loaded with talented grapplers from around the area including Dowagiac's Matt Behnke, Kyle Bennett and Rob Duszynski; South Haven's Drakkar Klose, Adam Bastow, Brad Keeny and Tyler Dotson; Niles' Josh Henry and Mason Stephenson; Coloma's Jeremy Ashley and C.J. Myers; Watervliet's Ben Isbrecht and Lonnie Simmons; River Valley's Tim Morrisey; and Buchanan's Travis Reith and Ryan Carrigan.
All these grapplers had three losses or fewer going into the weekend.
Klose, Phoehlman and Ashley are all undefeated. Bastow, Isbrecht, Northrop, Martin, Myers and Stein all have just one loss on the year.
Top Brandywine wrestlers expected to compete are Pat VanLaere (17-11), Jordan Bruni (12-8), Adam Simons (22-8), Jeremy Hechtl (14-14) and Jeremy Howell (11-10).
Other top wrestlers for the Chieftains expected to compete on Saturday are Tony Stewart (21-6), Shawn Rawson (19-5), Justin Desjardin (19-7), Nathan Cottrell (17-4) and Elijah Caldwell (18-9).
Other top wrestlers from Cassopolis expected to compete are Zach Duebner (31-1), John McCoy (30-2), Kenny Brown (24-8), and Randy Hemminger (28-4).