BOONSBORO — Mountain Ridge’s Garrett Michaels captured the 157-pound Class 2A/1A West Region championship on Saturday at Boonsboro High School, reaching a personal milestone in the process.
Michaels (38-4) won all three of his matches by pin, besting Middletown’s Henry Graham (34-13) via a pin in 1:51 in the championship bout. Michaels, who won his 100th career match over the weekend, will compete in his third state championship in three seasons.
The top four finishers in each region advanced to the Class 2A/1A state championships at Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, held from Feb. 29-March 2.
Fort Hill’s Carter Hess (285) and Northern’s Matthew Beitzel (120) also won region championships in the coed class.
Other area state qualifiers include Nate Wilhelm (120), Devon Opel (126) and Mason Glotfelty (132) of Northern; Hayden Harvey (132) and Ben Nazelrod (150) of Southern; and Jaylan Atkinson (165) of Fort Hill.
More information on those wrestlers was included in Monday’s edition of the Cumberland Times-News. Michaels was mistakenly excluded from that story, but the online version has since been updated.
In the girls Class 2A/1A West tournament, Allegany’s Brandi Gochenaur won the 235-pound championship.
Second-place finishers include Northern’s Ady Taylor (125), Mountain Ridge’s Jaianna Wickline (135) and Elianna Stevenson (145).
Northern’s Laura Moats finished third in the 100 pound class.
Fort Hill’s Alivian Heavner (135) and Allegany’s Maddie Mongold (125) were also late additions to the state tournament field.
While the top four regional finishers qualify for states in the coed division, the top three advance to states in the girls bracket — which will be a single classification 24-line bracket at the state tournament.