Johnson, Roper win district championships

SAGINAW — Seven Wildcats are moving onto the MHSAA Division 1 Wrestling Individual Regional tournament after qualifying during the district tournament on Saturday at Saginaw Heritage High School.
Qualifiers from the Oxford Varsity Wrestling team to finish in the top four in their weight classes were:
Luke Johnson (157) and Micah Roper (175) finished as district champions with their first place finishes.
Gavin Lewis (106) and Chase Beall (126) each finished in second place; Finnegan McDevitt (150) and Ian Jones (175) in third place; and Dominic Benjamin (113) in fourth place.
Johnson (36-2) went 4-0 with falls over Arthur Hill’s Justin Hughes, two seconds; Traverse City Central’s Gage Warren, 1:27; a decision over Davison’s Bryan Shanks, 7-3; and a fall over Lapeer’s Austen Murphy in the championship round, 1:51.
Roper (35-2) went 3-0 with falls over Arthur Hill’s Kavarion Purifoy, 29 seconds; teammate Jones, 1:58; and Heritage’s Alex Banda, 1:04.
Lewis (33-5) went 2-1 for the day with falls over Flushing’s Steven Bacman, 3:12; and Lapeer’s Conner Haslett, 3:50.
Beall (26-11) went 2-1 with a fall over Swartz Creek’s Vance Herd, 1:33; and Traverse City West’s Alex Reynolds, 7-5.
McDevitt (19-13) went 4-1 with a technical fall over Swartz Creek’s Caden Oskey, 15-0; a fall over Flushing’s Domanique Brandon, 5:00; a decision over Heritage’s Jack Gruno, 8-2; and Port Huron Northern’s Harrison Fletcher, 6-0.
Jones (21-16) went 3-1 with major decisions over Flushing’s Kayden Tinnin, 18-8; Traverse City Central’s Dylan Cocklin, 14-3; and Tinnin again in the third place match, 14-4.
Benjamin (32-8) went 2-2 with a fall over Dow’s Oliver Senkowski, 3:19; and a technical fall over Flushing’s Dylon Labell, 15-0.
Liam Samborski (285), Brennan McArthur (106), Ryan Thompson (144) finished in sixth place.
The Wildcats lost to Davison in the MHSAA Division 1 Wrestling Team District 103 on Feb. 7, 41-28.
Scoring points for Oxford were: Beall (132) with a major decision; Johnson (165) by decision; Roper (215) with a fall; Samborski with a fall; and Cheyenne Frank (120) with a fall.
Oxford accepted a void in the 106-pound weight class.
The Wildcats head to Lapeer for the MHSAA Division 1 Individual Regional 1 on Saturday. The Wildcats also compete in the MHSAA Division 1 Girls Individual Regional on Sunday.