Falcon Wrestling News: August 2024

Monthly Issue #12

Aug 30, 2024

2024 Season In Review

Fall Sports Off to Great Start

The 2024 fall sports season is kicking into full gear and several SMCC wrestlers are helping lead their teams in their respective fall sports.

Caleb Totten, Chase Missler, Christian Craanen, and Phineas Totten are racing all over the county for the cross country team. Christian started his freshman campaign very strong placing 14th in the Michigan Catholic XC Invitational.

Brianna Lynch races for the kestrels swim team competing in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, and 400 freestyle relay. She helped score points in their first dual meet but the team ended up falling short to Ypsilanti Lincoln.

Finally, Tyler Bashaw, Landon Barron, and Brady Fox helped the JV Football team take down Clinton’s JV 21-6 while Cole Reinhardt played both RB and LB to help the varsity team prevail 22-14. Both teams are 1-0 and will open league play next week against New Boston Huron.

Blast From the Past Fun Facts

SMCC is 1-2 since 2017 against AD Jared Janssen’s alma mater. The matchup between the Falcons and Bluestreaks is set to renew with two duals scheduled over the course of the 2025 season.
Only two wrestlers have earned 3X All State Honors as an SMCC wrestler in the program’s history. The first was John Godzina (1984 - 3rd, 1985 - 3rd, 1986 - 2nd) and the second is MaryAlice Lynch (2021 - G: 2nd, 2022 - G: 4th, 2023 - G: 4th)
The season leader for tech falls (on record) stands at 4 by Kurt LaRoy in 1996. This season, we may see more opportunities for tech falls due to the increase in value of a takedown from 2 to 3 points.
SMCC has steadily increase their pin count since 2017. After analyzing the data in the charts, there seems to be a correlation between getting more pins and winning more matches.

2024 Season In Review

The 2024 season was one to remember with its ups and downs, victories and defeats. The team opened the season with an exciting spotlight tri meet and despite losing both matches, the team rode back home from Annapolis having gained a great experience under their belts. Next for the team, came an Assembly Dual against rival Erie Mason. The gym was roaring and the wrestlers were wrestling allowing the falcons to win 66-12. Ending December 2023, SMCC split league matches by beating Flat Rock and falling to Airport. Individually, Kyle Bashaw won the Blissfield Invitational, Eric Mathies finished Blissfield Runner Up, and at the Sheriff’s county tournament Kyle Bashaw took 5th, Philbert Dietrich and Ethan DeLand were 6th

January was highlighted by an exciting Kestrel Invitational led by our female competitors Brianna Lynch, MaryAlice Lynch, and Isabella Grippi. The team competed in 21 duals while taking home the New Years Duals trophy for the second year in a row, finishing 3rd of 6 at the Falcon Duals, and 3rd of 10 at the Railsplitter Duals. The team season ended in the districts semifinals when the falcons lost to eventual state semifinalist Manchester.

At leagues, the falcons were hit with a sick spell and an injury but still managed to place four wrestlers and finish 6th in tournament points. Kyle Bashaw and Eric Mathies were 3rd and Brianna Lynch and Philbert Dietrich were 4th earning each of them all league honorable mention status. Philbert Dietrich, Eric Mathies, and Kyle Bashaw punched their tickets to Regionals where Kyle qualified for state. For the girls, MaryAlice qualified for state as well where she lost a heartbreaker in the blood round.

Over the course of the season, SMCC compiled a 14-11 record resulting in the second year in a row of a winning season with notable wins over Riverview, Sand Creek, Erie Mason, Lincoln Park, and Milan. The team finished 5th in the league which is the highest league finish in well over a decade.

Beyond the mat, the SMCC wrestling team finished Academic All-State for the third year in a row. The collective team average GPA was 3.48 which earned a spot in the Top 10 in Division IV.

The Falcons and Kestrels will greatly miss last year’s seniors Ethan DeLand, Philbert Dietrich, Elliot Fowkes, MaryAlice Lynch, Eric Mathies, and Davis McDonald. Each of them played an important role in their contributions to the wrestling program! The team will need to fill their shoes in order to have another fantastic season in the 2024-25 year.

Who’s Next?

In the last 20 years, SMCC has had just two wrestlers become all state by placing among the top 8 in the State Tournament. Those two wrestlers are Brendan O’Connor and MaryAlice Lynch. Since 1979, there have been 33 all state finishes among 22 different wrestlers for SMCC.

In many sports, coaches vote on who should be All State competitors. In wrestling it is different. In wrestling, competitors must earn every step of the way first by placing in the top 4 at districts, then placing in the top 4 at regionals, and finally by placing in the top 8 at state. There are no nominations, politics, and voting. There is only winning and losing to determine who’s name gets etched into history.