COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – In Branch County high school sports, 8 wrestlers from the county will be headed to the Palace of Auburn Hills next month for the MHSAA Individual finals after placing in the top 4 in their weight divisions in Saturday’s Regionals where 17 from the county competed. Coldwater’s Sam DeMeester earned his way to the Palace with his second place showing in Division 2 at Eaton Rapids, while Jesse Miller had a 4th place finish to qualify for a second straight year.
In Division 4 at Bronson, the host Vikings qualified 5 for the finals including David Erwin and Nathan Caudill winning Regional titles. Also advancing to the finals with their fourth place performances for Bronson were Cole Houtz, Chase Gibson and Joey Losinski.
Also in Division 4, Union City’s Jacob Todd punched his ticket to the Palace with his 4th place finish at the Kent City Regional.
In gymnastics Saturday, Coldwater earned its highest team score of the season to take fourth place in the South Central Gymnastics League meet in Tecumseh. Leading the Cardinals with All-Conference honors were Amanda Daoud for every event and the all-around category; Madison Hedstrom on the balance beam and Erica Rodgers for the floor exercise.
Coldwater’s team score of 128.925 included their best total of the season on bars with qualifying scores from Daoud, Hedstrom, Rodgers, and Sarah Hughes with Daoud tying for 10th place at the meet. 5 Cardinals stuck their beam routines for the team’s high total of the day.
Coldwater had 7 gymnasts in the top 25 on the beam, the most for any team competing. Hedstrom earned a personal record 8.85 to finish in 7th in the league. Daoud claimed 9th at 8.65. Claire Sheppard finished 16th overall, while Sarah Odom, Abby Swick, Darien Dyer and Rodgers rounded out the top 25.
Rodgers earned a personal best and best dance honors in the league for her 6th place, 8.725 floor routine while Daoud posted a personal record picking up a 9th place finish. Finally, on the vault, Daoud claimed 8th place with her effort at 8.45. Daoud placed in every event and the all-around, finishing 8th overall while Rodgers and Hedstrom posted personal best all-around scores, finishing 12th and 14th respectively.
To top off the day, Daoud, Hedstrom, Odom, Rogers, Sheppard and Tina Stutzke earned Academic All-Conference Honors.
In bowling, Coldwater freshman Alec Keplinger took first place out of 42 in the field in the Boys Division of the Interstate Eight Conference singles tournament Saturday at M-66 Bowl in Battle Creek. Also placing in the top ten for the Cardinals were senior Collin Outwater ninth and junior Jaden Reichhart tenth.
In the girls varsity division, senior Sadie Youse led Coldwater in 11th place. For the girl’s J.V division, winning medals were Stella Beerman in fifth place and Sabrina VanAuker in 7th place. The Varsity bowling regionals are coming up Friday and Saturday in Kalamazoo.
The Cardinals boys JV team competed in their state tournament over the weekend in Detroit. In singles action, with 119 bowlers, Andrew Sheets made it to the top 8 while the team finished in 13th place.
Also in bowling, Bronson took second place overall in the KVA Conference following the league meet Friday at Eastland Bowl in Kalamazoo. The Vikings finished fourth in the KVA tournament and Brandon Hyska led the All-Conference team with the best league average at 198.3.
Tonight’s in high school sports, in girls basketball, Bronson plays at home against Colon while in gymnastics, it’s Coldwater at Angola.
