Grosse Pointe Woods

North wrestling loses in regional semifinals; end season as district champs

By Mark Vest
C & G Sports Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Sean Work Grosse Pointe North’s Paul Menth, top, wrestles with an opponent from St. Clair Shores Lakeview during a district final matchup earlier this month. North lost a regional semifinal match to Macomb Dakota, but not before capturing a district title. Photo by Sean Work Grosse Pointe North’s Paul Menth, top, wrestles with an opponent from St. Clair Shores Lakeview during a district final matchup earlier this month. North lost a regional semifinal match to Macomb Dakota, but not before capturing a district title.

Grosse Pointe North’s team wrestling season came to a close after being defeated by Macomb Dakota 77-3 in a regional semifinal match Feb. 13 at Anchor Bay High School.

North coach Eric Julien understood coming into the matchup that defeating Dakota was going to be a challenge. The Cougars also proved to be a difficult draw for Chippewa Valley in the finals, winning that match 64-3, to capture a Division 1 regional championship.

Although the Norsemen’s season may over, Julien was pleased to see his team come away with a district title to their credit.

“My expectation this year was to win districts,” he said after North’s regional semifinal match. “To win districts, and as well as we did, winning 50-18 over (St. Clair Shores) Lakeview, was great.”

Julien credits hard work as the key to capturing a district championship and has some thoughts as to what he would like to see happen in order for the Norsemen to continue to have that kind of success.

“Having the kids come out and filling all the weight classes,” he said. “We didn’t have any big guys this year, at like 215 (to) 285 pounds. We had nobody there.”

If things come together the way he hopes, Julien believes the future of North’s program has the potential to be a good one.

“We have eight freshmen on the team this year,” he said. “I had 25 middle-school kids in my stands watching us wrestle last weekend. Knowing the freshmen we have now and the sophomores we have now — our two regional qualifiers are juniors (Andrew Lock and Jaron Nelson). With almost everybody on our team coming back, it’s really nice to see. We could have a really good future.”

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Mark Vest at mvest@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1112. Follow Mark on Twitter.