North Farmington wins West Bloomfield Invitational title

By MARVIN GOODWIN
Of The Oakland Press

WEST BLOOMFIELD — North Farmington's wrestling team had always been competitive at the West Bloomfield Invitational, but this time, the Raiders topped all their past efforts.

With their upper weights leading the way, the Raiders scored 187 points to outlast two other close challengers and win the tournament title for the first time Saturday.

Madison Heights Lamphere, last year's team champion, was second with 179 points, Waterford Kettering finished third with 171 and Birmingham Brother Rice was fourth with 137.

With the championship trophy in hand, the Raiders were in good spirits with smiles all around.

“It feels really good, I'm excited for the rest of the season now,” said 171-pounder Kevin Miller, who beat Lamphere's Ben Smith, 16-4 in the finals. “We had a lot of guys step up and get first for the first time. It took a lot of hard work to get here.” Miller was one of three champs, all in the upper weights, for the Raiders. John Davis squeezed out a 6-5 victory over Lamphere's Peter McAlpine to win the 160-pound title and heavyweight Majd Mokbel won by fall over Kettering's Joey Traeye. Courtney Drew, a finalist at 189, placed second.

“We go as our big boys do, and today they had a real nice night,” Raiders coach Tom Seremet said. “It was an absolute team effort. We had 10 kids place. I'm just very excited for the kids. I know this is something they wanted to do.”

With Lamphere still in the hunt, Mokbel helped lock up the title by pinning Traeye in the evening's final match.

“Last year I was third at 215,” said Mokbel, who used a hip toss to put Traeye to the mat. “He fell on his back on one shoulder and I kept squeezing until I got the other shoulder.”

Eric Stock (left) of Orchard Lake St. Mary's edged Trace Williamson of West Bloomfield in the 125-pound finals.

West Bloomfield (125) was fifth, Bloomfield Hills Andover (112) finished sixth and Waterford Mott (104) was seventh in the 14-team tournament.

Lamphere coach Russ Mackenzie was philosophical about second place.

“It's like every tournament, there's a couple matches you could've done better,” he said, “but we wrestled well.”

Jackson Lewis, who beat Drew, 15-4, was one of two champs for the Rams, who also had Andrew Gorman win the 112-pound title. Lewis is last year's Division 2 state runner-up.

“I've been working on my setups and takedowns since counties,” said the 189-pounder, now 21-1. “I've been pushing the pace and I'm super happy today.”

Kettering kept itself in the hunt by winning two of the first three finals. Devin Acker pinned Waterford Mott's Kevin Shafto in the 103-pound class and Scott Stambaugh beat Brother Rice's John Schuele, 19-4. David Dolehanty won the 135-pound title but the Captains couldn't keep the pace.

Brother Rice had two champions, as Andrew Napieraj broke open a close match against West Bloomfield's Anthony Thompson for a 20-8 victory at 130 and Shon Powell managed a 14-8 victory over Andover's John Williams in the 160-pound class. Powell racked up a 10-2 lead before Williams rallied and brought Powell down in the final period and nearly pinned him. Powell fought off the pin for nearly a minute until time ran out and the victory secured.

Orchard Lake St. Mary's Eric Stock outlasted West Bloomfield's Trace Williamson 3-2 in the 125-pound class and Walled Lake Northern's P.J. Kern pinned Lamphere's Griffen Winke in the third period of their 145-pound match. Orchard Lake St. Mary's RJ Bayne pinned Robinson of Birmingham Groves to finish third at 171-lb. The Eaglets finished 11th with 79.5 points.

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