Two wrestlers brought home MHSAA district titles from the individual tournament at Gaylord on Saturday, Feb. 13.

Senior Travis Wildfong and sophomore Andrew Ruhstorfer were the champions for their weight classes.

Besides the two champions, the Hornets boasted four runners-up and also qualified four other grapplers to advance to the individual regional tournament.

Wildfong won the 140-pound class, pinning his opponent in the final round within three minutes, while Ruhstorfer defeated his competitor by a decision, 9-8, in the 103-pound class.

In the 140 weight class, the tournament started with Wildfong and Petoskey senior Scott Kibbe as the favorites. Wildfong won his first two matches to advance to the championship match.

But instead of facing Kibbe, Wildfong faced off with junior Codie Webb from Sault Ste. Marie. Webb was able to advance after Kibbe bowed out of the tournament with an injury.

Even though Webb had a lower seed than Kibbe, Wildfong said he knows better than to overlook his opponent and that anything can happen in the six minutes on the mat.

“When the whistle blew, I instantly got after it,” Wildfong said. “I took him down four to five times.”

Wildfong dispatched Webb, pinning him in 2:53.

Looking forward to the individual regional, Wildfong has more key matches coming up.

His goal is to defeat Bryan LaVerne from Brandon.

“He has two of my three losses this year, and I have one win on him,” Wildfong said. “The goal is to improve from taking second last year and winning it this year.”

Wildfong is now 37-3 on the season.

In the 103 division, Ruhstorfer met up with the top seed, sophomore Derek Giallombardo from Gaylord.

Going into the title match, Giallombardo was 46-2 while Ruhstorfer was 44-3. Both wrestlers advanced through the tournament with pins.

However, neither Giallombardo nor Ruhstorfer would allow themselves to be pinned. The match ended in a 9-8 decision with Ruhstorfer claiming the victory and improving his record to 45-3.

Four Hornets placed second in their weight classes: senior Coi Jenkins and juniors Reese Harburn, Dylan Tarrence, and Zach Elizondo.

In addition, senior Brian Sams, junior Marcus Moss, and sophomore Malik Davis placed third.

Davis was impressed with his teammates.

“I feel like everyone worked really hard to get up there (to the regional), and they deserve what they got,” Davis said.

Davis said even though he finished third at the district winning a regional championship is still viable: “Yeah, I just have to push myself harder.”

Davis thinks the key to success is “being smart” while wrestling in the regional.

In the 135-pound consolation bracket’s final match, Sams won by pinning his competitor, Owosso junior Britton Spencer, at the 1:42 mark.

“I was pretty confident going in,” Sams said. “I thought I would do well because I had watched him earlier.”

Junior Dominic Buterakos placed fourth, which was the final qualifying spot to advance to the regional.

The wrestlers compete against Owosso in the team regional semifinal Wednesday, Feb 17, at Mt. Pleasant.

The winner of that match will take on the winner of the Bay City Central-Escanaba semifinal.