COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – In Branch County high school sports from over the weekend, in wrestling, there were regular season ending conference meets on Saturday with MHSAA team districts set for this Wednesday. Coldwater finished in 5th place in the Interstate 8 tournament at Harper Creek and placed third overall in the final conference standings. Winning league championship medals for the Cardinals were Jesse Miller and Sam DeMeester. Placing second was Nick Pierucki while third place finishers were Shuaib Aljabaly, Daniel Pino and Zach Gipple.
Bronson finished in second place at the BCS meet at Niles Brandywine and the Vikings will share the conference crown with White Pigeon, which won Saturday’s event. Bronson entered the tournament undefeated in the dual meet season and ranked seventh in the state in Division 4. David Erwin finished first in his weight division while second place showings were turned in by Brendan Withington and Gavin Alger. Third place medal winners for the Vikings were Connor Vargo, Ruger Ranney, Cole Houtz, and Joey Losinski.
In the Big Eight Conference tournament at Reading, Union City took third place while Quincy was sixth and Springport won its seventh straight league title.
In gymnastics on Saturday, Coldwater competed at the Plymouth Canton Invitational and finished 18th out of 18 teams in the tournament that was a state finals preview. It was the Cardinals’ first ever appearance at the tournament which included 94 Division Two gymnasts. Coldwater senior Amanda Daoud had a top 30 finish in the all-around category, placing 28th overall.
The Cardinals opened the day on the floor exercise and collected three individual qualifying scores posted by Daoud, Erica Rodgers and Claire Sheppard. Next on the vault, qualifiers were earned by Daoud, Rogers, and Madison Hedstrom. On the uneven bars, Daoud performed her best routine of the season and tied for 25th on the event in Division 2. Wrapping up on the balance beam, there were no qualifying scores.
Coming up Saturday, the Cardinals will host their annual Stick It For a Cure Invitational tournament with all of the proceeds to benefit cancer patients of Branch County.
Tonight in varsity high school sports, just one event is scheduled and we’ll have it on the radio with a Branch County Girls basketball matchup in Coldwater between the Cardinals and the Bronson Vikings. The tip-off will be around 7:30 p.m. following the junior varsity game, which begins at 6 p.m. Our live coverage on AM 1590 and FM 95.5 and also on-line at wtvbam.com starts at 7 p.m. There is no freshman game. The Coldwater freshman team plays tonight at Comstock.
