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DOWAGIAC — Injuries and adversity weren’t enough to deter Dowagiac’s wrestling team from maintaining its high standard of excellence on the mat. 

Colin Burandt’s Chieftains (9-5) overcame the two obstacles and reached the team regional finals for the eighth consecutive season before losing 65-18 to Allegan Wednesday in the Division 3 regional tournament in Constantine.

With 11 of 14 varsity starters returning next season and an influx of talent moving up from the middle school program, Dowagiac’s future looks very bright.

“Our program standard is to reach this point of the tournament every year. It’s been a pretty good season, especially with how young a team we are and with all the injuries and adversity these kids have gone through. I don’t think we ever wrestled one meet this season with a complete lineup. Every week we had someone going down with an injury. but these kids fought through it with the next man up mentality. It didn’t matter if they were a senior or first-year wrestler,  they kept working hard to reach higher goals,” Burandt said.

“We had a lot of freshmen and sophomores who broke the lineup for the first time who had never made it this far. Hopefully the experience they went through lights a fire within them. We have some good eighth graders moving up who will be able to fill in some of the holes we must fill.”

Dowagiac was able to slip past an up-and-coming Coloma program 42-37 in the semifinals and get a crack at No. 4-ranked Allegan. Allegan beat state powerhouse Constantine with a 33-30 win in the other semifinal.

Alfonso Williams (138) from Dowagiac dropped a tough 17-13 decision in his match with Coloma’s Jay Christe. Weski Wesaw (157) and Balois Franco (132) of Dowagiac both lost matches by technical fall against Coloma.

In the upperweights, Dowagiac’s Hayden Groth (215) won by pinfall over Coloma’s Jaydon Williams in 0:54, while Chieftains’ teammate Cal Chapman (285) stuck the Comets’ Demarkus Wusinger in 0:44.

In the lower weights, Dowagiac’s Aidan Voorhees (106) pinned Isla Reinhardt in 0:49. Dowagiac grapplers Maverick Baerg (175), Joseph Perez (190), Wyatt Gerver (119) and Angel Brito (126) all lost their matches by pinfall. Receiving victories by void for Dowagiac were Cinthia Villegas (144), Cameron White (150), Ryan Cardwell (165) and Markus Ottinger (120).  

Dowagiac gave up a total of nine pins against a more experienced Allegan squad and lost another match on a technical fall. Dowagiac’s lone wins against Allegan came at 215, 285 and 113. Groth (215) pinned Sylar Bush in 3:39. Chapman (285) won by void and Ottinger (113) stuck Sullivan Morgan in 0:23.

Although the team portion of the season ends, four Dowagiac individuals are still chasing state championships dreams. Groth (215, 33-7), Chapman (285, 35-2), Ottinger (113, 23-15) and White (144, 33-12) will compete in Saturday’s Individual Regional at Olivet High School. Chapman was district champion, while Groth took runners-up honors, White earned third and Ottinger finished fourth.

The top four finishers in all 14 weight divisions advance to the individual state finals at Ford Field Feb. 28-March 1.