Advertisement

Marlette's Jon Hayward, the defending Division 4 State Champion at 119, has been ranked as the number one wrestler in the same weight class by the Michigan Wrestling Association for the entire season.

On Saturday, at the Greater Thumb Conference wrestling tournament, Hayward reminded his opponents why he is ranked so highly.

Hayward barely broke out a sweat here as the senior went 2-0 on the day, recording two convincing victories on his way to earning All-Conference honors again. For his performance, Hayward was named the Rich Reed Memorial Most Valuable Performer, an award which goes to the best wrestler at the GTC meet.

After a first round bye, Hayward took just 1:10 to pin Brown City's Mitch Kohler to move onto the 125 finals.

In the finals, Hayward used 1:51 of the match before getting the pin over Mayville's Max Leiber. Hayward's performance helped the Red Raiders climb to a second-place finish at the meet, finishing with 183 points. The Raiders were just 14 points behind the top team at the tournament, which was Mayville.

The Wildcats, winners of the league tournament for the second straight year, had five wrestlers take top honors on their way to 197.5 points.

For Mayville, Lee Tippett (130), Jake Simpson (160), Dylan Schenk (171), Nate Richardson (189) and Jullian Williams (285) were all unbeaten on the day for coach Mark Cooper's Wildcats. Tippet went 3-0 and capped his day with a pin of Cass City's Kevin Dorland at the 1:43 mark of the championship match.

Jake Simpson won a 12-4 decision over Nouvel's Jordan Villaire to win the 160-poind title. Schenk defeated Cass City's Chris Wingett 10-6 to finish his day with a 3-0 record.