Luke Johnson marks 100 wins with a fall over Rochester last Wednesday. Photo: Provided by Kristina Johnson

By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
OXFORD — Junior Luke Johnson finished up the last of the OAA Red League duals reaching a milestone at Oxford High School last Wednesday.
Johnson had a first period fall over Rochester’s Ryan Cannon in the 165-pound weight class for his 100th career win. A win over Clarkston’s Matteo Marino, 8-6, put him at 101 by the end of the night.
“It’s a great milestone especially as a junior and a guy who has had some injuries over the last couple of years,” said Oxford Varsity Wrestling Head Coach Ross Wingert. “He’s been absolutely dominating. He is flawless in about 96 percent of his matches this year. Luke has been really impressive and will continue to be. We expect him to pin every one down. He went out there and did the job the best he could.”
Oxford went 1-1 for the night, finishing the OAA Red with one loss in dual meets against Clarkston, 36-32.
“It was a harsh reality,” Wingert said. “We are capable of wrestling and have some really good wrestlers so we can’t take anything away from them. They did a good job. The standard we hold ourselves to and how we train everyday it stinks it wasn’t able to show that night, but at the same time we continue to put our kids in tough situations and experiences to learn from them and continue to grow.”
“It’s going to be a good dual when you wrestle Oxford,” said Brian Gibbs, head coach for the Wolves. “It was a great environment. The gym was loud. Our team was getting up for every match. It was fun. It was good to get that win and get our third league title in a row.”
Clarkston’s Archer Anderson opened the dual with a fall over Wildcat Antonio Rojas in the 120-pound weight class, at 1:15.
Wolf Preston Lefevre (126) followed it up with another fall over Wildcat Cash Russell, 25 seconds.
Chase Beall moved up to the 132-pound weight class and won his match against Ayden Mutter, 9-6.
“It was a match we liked,” said Wingert. “He did a nice job handling it.”
Niko Hatzigeorgiou (144) won his match over John Bechinski with a technical fall, 16-1. Ryan Thompson (150) was next up and won his match with a fall over Maxim Brown.
Wins from Oxford also came from Johnson over Marino; Micah Roper (175) with a fall over Ethan Zak; Gavin Lewis (106) over Gavin Culloty with a technical fall, 18-3; and Dominic Benjamin (113) over Tyler Le, 12-1.
“Gavin wrestled a kid really clean and Niko and Ryan put us in positions to get bonus points for us,” Wingert said. “Micah got his job done.”
He added Benjamin had a good night as well, finishing with a major decision over the Wolves.
The Wildcats opened the night with a 60-15 win over Rochester. Cheyenne Frank (113) was the first one on the match and had a 8-3 win over Julian Abrishaman.
Oxford continued the momentum with big wins – mostly from falls from Benjamin (120) over Hudson Blake; Connor Stokes (132) over Zachary Ming; Hatzigeorgiou (138) over Caden Webb; Thompson (144) over Jack Pokorny; Nolan Freytag (150) over Anderson Wilcox; Finn McDevitt (157) over Stewart Kissinger; Johnson over Cannon; Roper (190) over Tristan Hiatt; and Lewis over Cameron Julian.
Beall won by void in the 126-pound weight class.
Oxford lost to Lowell, 49-15, at Jenison Field House on Friday, opening for the Michigan State University Wrestling team in their Big Ten dual against Wisconsin.
Wins for the Wildcats came from: Lewis in the 113-pound weight class over Cole Cichocki, 5-0; Benjamin (120) over Braddock King, 4-1; Johnson (157) over Tacho Gonzales, 5-3; and Roper (175) with a fall over Seth Harvey.
The Wildcats went 5-0 in the Bob Lloyd Memorial Wrestling Team Tournament at Allen Park on Saturday. They defeated Melvindale, 78-0; Martin Luther King, 72-6; Brother Rice, 40-21; Allen Park, 35-29; and Monroe, 75-6.
Oxford heads to Lake Orion on Friday and Saturday for the OAA Red League Individual meet.
Varsity competes on Friday, beginning at 4 p.m. and JV competes on Saturday at 9 a.m.
“We are going to keep our starters back on Friday night,” said Wingert. “We will have a team in it. We are wrestling undefeated Algonac at Rochester University on Sunday. Then, turnaround and wrestle Davison first in districts. We set our standards to have a nice full week of training.”
The Wildcats compete in the MHSAA Division 1 Team District 103 meet at Lapeer on Wednesday, Feb. 7. The Wildcats compete against Davison at 5:30 p.m. The winner moves on to the final against the Port Huron Northern/Lapeer winner at 7 p.m.