With the score tied 36-36, the Ranger wrestling program went into sixth criteria tie-breaker against Forest Hills Northern, which is the least amount of forfeits, according to MHSAA rules. The Huskies had one forfeit on the night due to too many techs, which resulted in the Rangers’ second straight conference win.

“This match was without a doubt one of the most exciting I’ve ever witnessed,” head coach Brad Anderson said. “It was a passionate, gritty, hard-fought dual with FHN that lasted until the end. It was back and forth, until the score was tied, which is when we won due to the 6th MHSAA criteria.”

Junior Mason Childers wrestled at 119 tonight and competed against talented Husky wrestler Noah Garces. Mason has been spectacular on the season thus far, and is one of the best wrestlers at his weight class in the conference. In this match, he was the more experienced wrestler and pinned his opponent early, giving the Rangers six points. 

Junior Caden Jacobs had only one loss on the season coming into his match against FHN James Harvey. In this match, Caden defeated him 5-2 with a few swift moves in his 125-pound weight class.

“Conference matches are always super competitive, and when we play Forest Hills Northern, it’s even more so,” Caden said. “This one went down to the wire, and it was fun to compete in it and see everyone’s reaction.”

Coming up big for the Rangers was freshman Michael Campbell who was wrestling at 145 in the absence of junior Isaac Gurley, who is out with a knee injury. Michael managed to pin his opponent, which gave the Rangers yet another huge advantage over the Huskies and was crucial for the final outcome, as every point was.

FHC’s freshman Blake Jacobs is wrestling at 112, and he won via forfeit which also gave the Rangers a huge boost. Possibly the deciding match, however, came from senior Sammy Postlewait. Sammy faced off against a tough wrestler but won by the disqualification of his opponent. He did too many illegal moves and techniques, which ended up costing both him and his team the game.

“The win against Northern was huge,” Sammy said. “We shouldn’t have gone down to the final criteria in the first place, but the fact that we won the way we did was pretty cool.”

The Rangers also faced off against Allegan, Godwin Heights, and Grandville, who proved competitive in all aspects. Against Allegan, the Rangers came out victorious with a 48-24 win and also added a 61-15 win against Godwin later on.

The real competition began when they faced the winner of Lowell B and Grandville. In this matchup, Grandville narrowly won and had to face off against the Rangers. The Bulldogs ended this match victorious, but they had to really fight from start to finish in order to beat FHC.

The Rangers are now 2-0 in the conference and sit at 13-3 on the season. Their next matchup is on Friday, January 24 at FHN for an OK White Quad, then again on Saturday across the state.

“We faced off in the crossover against Grandville, who is very talented and who holds a very sound program,” Brad said. “Even though we fell in this one, they gave us what we needed. We needed to get a little roughed up so that we have something big to work on, and we’ll just have to keep pushing every day in practice.”