WHITEHALL — All three county wrestling schools, and many others, converged on Whitehall Sunday for the individual girls district tournament, which produced two regional qualifiers.
Hart’s Emma Miller secured her spot at state by earning second place at 125 pounds. Miller scored three consecutive pins to reach the championship round before falling to Grand Haven’s Margaret Young.
Hesperia’s Lacey Mey was Oceana’s other regional qualifier, finishing fourth at 130. Mey went 3-2 on the day, with all her wins coming by pin. Her blood-round win over Jasmine Galvan-Flores of Union was what punched her ticket to the regional meet.
It’s the second year the girls wrestling bracket has included a district round. The girls wrestling tournament is different from the boys in two major ways: In addition to the top four finishers advancing to the next round as with the boys, team championships are awarded based on individual scores (Lowell took the top spot Sunday); and there are no divisions, with brackets arranged purely on geography. It’s possible that as the sport grows, both will one day change.
Shelby came close to adding two more regional qualifiers to the mix, but unfortunately Grace Ann Eckert and Olivia Casarez fell one win short of advancing at 155 and 105 respectively. Eckert went 2-2 on the day, with both wins coming by pin, before dropping a tough decision to Katy Gable of Ludington by a 6-2 score. Casarez went 1-2 on the day.
Also going 1-2 were Gracie Parks of Shelby at 125 and Elyssa Tanis of Hart at 115. April Luna of Shelby dropped a first-round match at 125 to end her individual campaign.
