DOWAGIAC — The Dowagiac Wrestling Club had eight of the 16 Dowagiac wrestlers placed in the top eight at last weekend’s 2018 MYWAY State Wrestling Finals. 

The state finals were held over three days at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo. 

Wrestlers competed in three arenas on around thirty full-sized mats. A total of 2,998 wrestlers competed in the open state finals between all the age groups and weight classes. Additionally, there was a MYWAY girls state tournament which had 337 participants. 

Kaiden Reith placed eighth at 75 pounds, Gavin Schoff and Roman Paredes placed seventh at 112 and 71 pounds respectively. 

Rowan Bradford at 85, Alan Wegner at 82 and Rooney Olmedo at 58 pounds each finished fourth. Dylan Elmore placed second at 115 pounds.

Jenna Bradford, wrestling in the girl’s tournament at 58 pounds, also took home a silver medal. 

Gavin Schoff and Roman Paredes battled back after tough losses to leave the competition with a win. Olmedo and Bradford are first-year wrestlers and showed major improvement through the season.  

“Reith, Wegner and Bradford demonstrated they weren’t afraid to utilize throws when they needed it in multiple matches,” said Dowagiac coach Jarrid Bradford. “All of the Dowagiac wrestlers showed improved work effort and placed higher than the season before. Coaches were most proud of how all 16 Dowagiac state qualifiers represented their team after four months of training for the state finals.”