MARQUETTE — A half-dozen area wrestlers from three high schools have advanced to the MHSAA individual wrestling state championships to be held at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday and Saturday.

They placed in the top four in both district and regional tournaments in the open division to advance to the finals, where nearly 900 wrestlers are scheduled to compete on the floor of the stadium that the Detroit Lions compete on.

All MHSAA high schools are divided into four divisions for competition, with each division having 14 weight classes with 16 wrestlers per weight class. Multiplying those three numbers together — four, 14 and 16 — comes to 896 wrestlers in all at Ford Field.

Twenty-one area wrestlers advanced out of their individual district tourneys held Feb. 8, only to have their numbers pared to six after the regionals held Feb. 15.

A top-four finish at the districts was required to advance to regionals; likewise, a top-four finish at regionals was needed to get to Ford Field.

The half-dozen who are heading to the finals include one wrestler from Negaunee in Division 3, along with two from Munising and three from Manistique in Division 4.

Just coincidentally, the six are in six separate weight classes.

Here is information about the finalists and their run in the tournaments, followed by information about the other 15 who made it to regionals:

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Evan Asikainen, Negaunee

From Negaunee, freshman Evan Asikainen might be considered something of a favorite at 106 pounds, considering he won both his district tournament that was held in Grayling and his regional that was hosted in Hart.

Rather than a full field of 16 wrestlers, there were only seven entered at 106 in his district. However, none of the weight classes there included more than 12 wrestlers, even though 14 schools were listed in the field there on the MHSAA website, www.mhsaa.com.

The Upper Peninsula was represented in Grayling by not only the Miners, but also Westwood, Gladstone, Kingsford and Menominee.

Asikainen, who was listed with a 41-1 record entering the district tournament, won on a pair of technical falls at districts. He defeated Korbin Kopenkoskey of Boyne City 17-1 in the semifinals, then took out Alex Moore of Grayling in the finals 15-0.

But at the regionals, there was a full field of eight wrestlers. Regionals brought together the top four wrestlers from two districts, in this case, Grayling and Shepherd.

Asikainen opened his regional with a pin at 2 minutes, 47 seconds of Alex Sampson of Sanford-Meridian.

He finished off the regional like he did districts, putting together back-to-back technical falls, beating Diego Silva of Alma 17-1, and in the finals, Jordan Thies of regional host Hart 15-0.

The bracket for the state finals is already available on the MHSAA website, and it shows Asikainen facing Jacob Collier of Allegan, a fourth-place finisher at his regional, in the first round.

While the bracket looks like a double-elimination format, only wrestlers who continue to win without a loss can finish as a state champion or runner-up. The first loss by a wrestler puts him on the consolation side of the bracket, where that athlete can still finish third in the state by winning that side of it.

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Korbyn Smith, Munising

Senior Korbyn Smith had an interesting run through his two Division 4 tournaments at 144 pounds, finishing in third place at each by winning the consolation bracket while also compiling a 3-1 record at each one.

At each tourney, he won his final two matches to get to advance to the next level.

In his district held at Manistique, Smith, listed at 25-9 entering districts, opened with a pin at 3:17 of Bodie Lipnitz of St. Ignace, then lost by a pin at 5:12 to Pryar LaBonte of North Central.

With his first match in the consolation bracket being his “blood” match, the match that determines whether he would have a top-four finish and advance, he had to face sophomore teammate Nolan Dolaskie. And Smith managed to score a technical fall with a 20-2 decision to advance to the third-place match, where he pinned Lipnitz again, this time at 3:31.

Smith got himself behind the 8-ball at the Charlevoix regional, which also brought in wrestlers from the Manton district. He opened by being pinned by Brett Vanacker of Roscommon at 3:02, forcing him to win two matches to get to the state finals.

He did just that and more, pinning North Central’s LaBonte at 2:12, then winning on an injury default by Toby Pike of Onaway.

In the third-place match, he scored a major decision, 16-4, over Abraham Feeney of Maple City Glen Lake.

In the finals, he is scheduled to open against Aidan Taylor of Union City, a second-place finisher at his regional.

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Cayden Wieczorek, Munising

Senior Cayden Wieczorek wrestles at 157 pounds and entered districts with a 25-6 record.

That was good enough to earn a first-round bye before he took on Sage Melka of Gwinn, where he scored a pin at 51 seconds.

Then he lost an 8-0 major decision to Logan McMullen of Indian River Inland Lakes, sending him to the consolation bracket.

In his first match there, also the “blood” match, he faced another area wrestler — though not a teammate — in Kamron Blau of Newberry. Wieczorek won with a pin at 2:42, then went on to score an 18-1 technical fall of Collin Maves, also of Inland Lakes, for third place.

At regionals, Wieczorek opened with a narrow 13-11 win over Tanyon Smith of Mio, then was pinned at 30 seconds by Logan Wilks of Charlevoix.

Now on the consolation side, the Mustangs wrestler scored an 18-1 technical fall of Calvin Throop of Mancelona North Central Academy in the blood match. Going for third place, he suffered an injury default to Inland Lakes’ McMullen, the same wrestler he lost to in districts.

Coming to the finals as a fourth-place finisher at regionals, he’ll take on regional champion Jericho Holmes of LeRoy Pine River to open.

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Jonathan Weber, Manistique

Senior Jonathan Weber was listed with a 26-8 record entering districts, then made the most of limited matches to win his district and finish runner-up at regionals at 120 pounds.

In his home district, he advanced through a pair of byes to face Huntley Thorson of Charlevoix in the semifinals, winning with a pin listed as “0:00”, then apparently winning by forfeit listed as “M. For.” in the championship match over Thomas Jenkins of Gwinn.

At the Charlevoix regional, Weber advanced on a bye again, then won on a major decision, 16-3, over Zachary Martin of Oscoda to reach the finals. In that match, Luke Harper of Traverse City St. Francis scored a major-decision 16-0 win.

At Ford Field, Weber will open against regional third-place finisher Ryan Grant of Capac.

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Landon Weber, Manistique

Junior Landon Weber of Manistique entered districts with a 27-9 record at 113 pounds and finished third at both districts and regionals with a record of 5-2 at those events combined.

At districts, he opened with a loss by technical fall, 19-3, to James Layman of Inland Lakes, then won on a pin at 1:45 in his blood match over Jack Gauthier of Gwinn. He won one more time, taking third by pinning Matt Doney of Norway at 2:13.

Weber opened with a victory at the Charlevoix regional, slipping past Matthew Chorba of Houghton Lake 16-13 before losing to Inland Lakes’ Layman again, this time in a major decision of 14-1.

In the consolation bracket, he had another district rematch in the blood round, and repeated his success by pinning Doney of Norway at 2:12. He added one more pin at 1:44 of Azrael Horvath of Manton to take third.

He opens the finals with a match against regional runner-up Bryan Wing of Pine River.

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Gavin Ziminski, Manistique

Senior Gavin Ziminski is doing just enough to advance to the next round, finishing fourth at both districts and regionals as he brought a 14-19 record into districts at 190 pounds.

At his home district tourney, he opened with a loss to Mitchell Corrigan of Bark River-Harris, being pinned at 2:55, then scored a pin in his blood match at 57 seconds of Mathew Dornin of Inland Lakes. Going for third place, he lost a tight 10-8 decision to Liam Leipold of St. Ignace.

Ziminski took the hard way through regionals, losing his opening match with a pin at 35 seconds to Lane Sanchez of Benzie Central.

He went on to win the necessary two matches in a row, edging Jaden Grutsch of Mancelona 9-7, then scoring a fall at 4:38 of Carter Baker of Roscommon.

Going for third again, he was pinned at 4:27 by BR-H’s Corrigan, who he also lost to in districts.

At Ford Field, he’ll face regional champion Bryce Randolph of Clinton to open states.

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Other regional qualifiers

The list of 15 other successful district competitors who didn’t make it out of regionals includes five wrestlers from Negaunee and two from Westwood in Division 3, plus one from Gwinn, two from Munising, one from Newberry and four from Manistique in Division 4.

For Negaunee, senior Phoenix Espinoza won his district at Grayling with a 3-0 record, but wasn’t able to compete in the Hart regional.

The other four Miners all finished fourth at districts with a 2-2 record there, then bowed out after two matches at regionals, with the exception of junior Devin Jurmu at 150 pounds.

Jurmu did place fourth at districts, but compiled a 3-2 record there, and interestingly, had to beat teammate Dominik Storm in the blood round, which he did with an 18-0 technical fall score.

The other three NHS wrestlers making regionals were junior Derek Potvin at 106 pounds, sophomore Peyton Black at 144 and senior Nicholas Beaudry at 190.

From Westwood, junior Gavin Comero was second at districts at 150 pounds with a 2-1 record, then went 1-2 at regionals. Patriots sophomore Cassius Lindquist was fourth at districts with a 2-2 record, then was also 1-2 at regionals.

Gwinn senior Thomas Jenkins was second at 120 pounds in his Division 4 district with a 1-1 record, but wasn’t able to compete at regionals.

From Munising, sophomore John Nord won his district at 106, advancing through byes to the championship, when he pinned Connor Hall of Fife Lake Forest Area at 2:14, then went 1-2 at regionals.

Mustangs sophomore Kalijah Wieczorek at 150 was fourth in his district compiling a 3-2 record, then lost both matches at regionals.

Newberry junior Howard Bliss at 138 was fourth in his district with a 2-2 record, then went 1-2 at regionals.

And the deep Manistique team counted a total of seven wrestlers advancing through districts to the regionals.

Senior Griffin Maline at 175 pounds was runner-up in his district with a 1-1 record, then lost both matches at regionals, while sophomore Grayden Holt at 126 was also second in his district with a 2-1 mark, but wasn’t able to compete at regionals.

Also for the Emeralds, senior Aiden Osterhout was third at districts at 132, going 3-1, then lost both his matches at regionals, and freshman Carlson Nelson was fourth at 120 in his district with a 1-2 record, then also went 1-2 at regionals.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.