Royal Oak Ravens Wrestlers Advance to Regionals

The wrestling team won the team district championship Thursday evening at Birmingham , defeating the host team in the first round and l in the finals. The team now moves on to the regionals next Wednesday at Warren Cousino High School.

The Ravens used a very effective offensive attack in the opening meet, picking up five falls enroute to a 52-24 drubbing of the host Falcons. The Ravens started out fast with three falls in the first three bouts of the evening – by junior Zeke Burns, sophomore Max Bailiff and senior Tyler McCullough.

Roderick Gomiller recorded a technical fall (20-5) and senior Joe Ledford scored a major decision (11-3), scoring several takedowns with his single leg attack.

Royal Oak forfeited the 140-pound weight class before sophomore Nick Zalewski utilized a relentless leg ride and half Nelson to score near fall points before pinning his opponent at the 0:38 point in the second period. At the midway point in the meet Royal Oak led 33-6.

The second half of the meet featured a major decision by senior Dan Dobras (11-0), who slipped an attempted headlock by his opponent to score the first takedown of the match. Senior Mitch Nagle had a second period fall.

The final match of the meet was also the most exciting, with freshman Cullen Conway holding on for a thrilling 5-4 victory in the 285-pound weight class. After freshman Lee Hewson collected a forfeit at 103 pounds, the final score was 52-24.

"This was a great team performance, one of their best of the year," said Hewson’s father, Jeff Hewson. "They are getting stronger through the season and seem ready for tournament season. The coaches have done a great job with these kids.”

Dobras is ready for regionals. “It’s exciting that it’s the post-season. The season just flew by,” the senior said.

Fellow senior Ledford thought the team wrestled pretty well and is also poised for Wednesday’s  regional meet. “We are one of the best conditioned teams heading into the meet,” Ledford said.

Coach Mike McGee was pleased with the team's performance. “We did really well with the team we brought. They wrestled extremely well.”

After so many exciting matches in the first round, the finals were anticlimactic with Berkley forced to surrender eight forfeits in Royal Oak’s 48-27 victory.

The Ravens will compete in the individual district tournament Saturday at Groves before the team competes in the regionals Wednesday at Cousino High School.