Hartland Wrestling Wins Regionals for 10th Year in a Row

No one could touch the Hartland wrestling team as they took home its 10th consecutive regional title Wednesday night, steamrolling over Rochester Adams in the semis and Clarkston in the finals.

The Eagles beat the Highlanders 45-20 and the Wolves 48-15, giving Hartland head coach Todd Cheney his 499th win in his 19th season as head coach.

“That first dual was a big one,” Cheney said. “They had nine regional qualifiers and we upset a bunch of them.”

Cheney was especially impressed with Justin Rollins, who head locked and pinned district finalist Ryan Howcroft from Rochester Adams in one minute, 47 seconds.

“We started off a little slow against Rochester Adams,” said senior captain Chase Snider.  “Everyone was kind of tired off the scale.  Against Clarkston, everyone picked it up and didn’t really get pinned, and we got bonus points where we needed it.”

In the final dual, Clarkston voided the 152-pound match when they were down 23-9, in hopes that they could come back between 160 and 215.  This was a scenario that Cheney wrote down the night before, but didn’t think the Wolves would end up doing it.

“When they (Clarkston) bumped up, I didn’t think we’d win all those matches, but we won every single one, from 60 to 215.”

Snider has been to the state meet since he was a freshman on varsity, but is keeping the excitement of going back in perspective and looking to this weekend.

“I’m excited because our team has the potential to make it all the way if we wrestle good enough,” he said.  “But we have to look forward to this weekend first, and worry about individual regional and then focus on team state next week.”

At the beginning of the season, the Hartland wrestling team was projected to not be as good as previous years, but Cheney is proud to say this is not the case after the regional.

“We’re way ahead of the expectations,” smiled Cheney.  “So may people said this and that, this and that, this and that, you guys won’t be good – well, if we’re not good, I don’t mind being not good every year.”

Twelve out of Hartland’s 14 wrestlers head to L’Anse Cruese this Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. Seeding for the team state tournament in Battle Creek will take place this Sunday at 6 p.m. online.

The team has beat Temperance Bedford, Hudsonville, Romeo and Brighton, and according to Cheney, all of those teams will most likely be at the team state tournament.  And if they all are, he sees the Eagles as a second or third seed.