DETROIT — Two of the six area wrestlers who qualified for the MHSAA wrestling Individual Tournament state finals won multiple matches on the floor at Ford Field in Detroit last weekend.

With nearly 900 wrestlers competing in 14 weight divisions across four divisions, organizers needed two days — Friday and Saturday — to schedule all the matches at the home of the Detroit Lions.

Freshman Evan Asikainen of Negaunee and junior Landon Weber of Manistique each placed in the top eight with their multiple wins at the finals.

They and four other area wrestlers worked their way through district and regional competition to earn their spots in Detroit.

Wrestlers had to finish in the top four in each of those preliminary tournaments to advance to the next round, with a higher finish bringing more favorable seeding as they advanced.

These tourneys, including the finals, were held in a modified double-elimination format as it took two losses to be eliminated from further competition.

However, once a wrestler lost, he could no longer win a state title, though the athlete could still work their way through the consolation bracket to finish as high as third place in that particular event.

That’s what Asikainen and Weber eventually worked toward at the finals.

Asikainen, who wrestled at 106 pounds in Division 3 and entered as a regional champion, had a sterling 44-3 record this season coming into the finals.

He won three of his five matches in Detroit to finish in seventh place, the highest placing of any area wrestler.

He opened with a narrow 1-0 victory over sophomore Jacob Collier of Allegan, who entered as a fourth-place finish at another regional.

Asikainen then lost to Danny Vaneeckhoutte of Erie-Mason, getting pinned at 1 minutes, 45 seconds of their match.

That sent the Miners wrestler into the consolation side of the bracket.

He then defeated Alex Moore of Grayling with a 16-1 technical fall decision to guarantee getting to a placement match.

Asikainen then lost to TJ Landrum of Algonac in a 10-0 major decision to qualify for the seventh-place match, where he defeated Justice Harding of Williamston 4-0 as Asikainen finished seventh and Harding eighth.

Not too surprisingly, all of Asikainen’s opponents had quite impressive season records — Collier entered at 44-16, Vaneeckhoutte at 42-2, Moore at 43-9, Landrum at 51-8 and Harding at 31-6.

Asikainen was the only area wrestler at the finals from a Division 3 school, with the other five from Division 4 Munising and Manistique.

Weber, who wrestled at 113 and entered with a 30-13 record, came to the finals as a third-place finisher at his regional.

He opened by facing off against a second-place regional finisher in Bryant Wing of Leroy Pine River and lost by a 20-4 technical fall decision, sending him quickly into the consolation bracket.

So he had some work to do to get to a placement match, but that’s exactly what he did, winning twice.

Weber defeated David Lane of White Pigeon 10-5, then won by default as his next opponent couldn’t go.

He then was pinned by Aedyn Pasco of Brown City at 2:55 to reach the seventh-place match, where he was pinned at 1:49 by Blake Wendling of New Lothrop to finish in eighth place.

The four other area wrestlers reaching the Division 4 finals each lost their only two contested matches.

Senior Korbyn Smith of Munising, who entered with a 28-12 record at 144 pounds, was pinned by Aidan Taylor of Union City and Aiden Turner of Perry. Taylor finished third in the division.

Senior Cayden Wieczorek of Munising, who entered with a 27-10 record at 157, advanced one round further as he received a bye in his opening match.

He then lost on a technical fall decision to Cliff Jones of Clinton and was pinned by Logan Wilks of Charlevoix.

Senior Jonathan Weber of Manistique, who entered with a 27-11 record at 120, lost on a technical fall decision to Ryan Grant of Capac and was pinned by Eric Larson of Beaverton.

And senior Gavin Ziminski of Manistique, who entered with a 16-23 record at 190, was pinned by Bryce Randolph of Clinton and Ethan Wakefield of Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary. Randolph, who entered as a regional champion, also won the state title in the division.

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