Whitehall Wrestling Goes Out in Style

Whitehall's Steven Sika was one of three Vikings to
win individual state titles last weekend. (Photo by Marta Sandee)

Sorry for the late post, but holy mother of chicken soup has this last week been busy. The following list of cities represents an actually conceivable travel schedule for me on consecutive non-Sundays from Mar. 2-13: Muskegon (hockey regionals), Holton (pre-district boys b-ball), McBain (regional girls b-ball), Holton again (district semis), McBain again (regional finals), Holton or Muskegon again (district finals), Plymouth (if Reeths-Puffer advances to the state hockey finals), Traverse City (boys' regional semifinals), Petoskey (girls' state quarterfinals, should Shelby get there), Traverse City (boys' regional finals, if the Holton district winner gets there).

Anyway...

The team finals didn't go the way Whitehall wanted them to, but it's hard to imagine a better individual finals for the Vikings than the ones they enjoyed last weekend.

Three Whitehall wrestlers won state titles last weekend, led by the two Sika twins, Steve and Joe, at 160 and 171, respectively. Neither of the final matches were particularly close.

Steve won by technical fall over Caro's Skylar Ley, basically toying with him the entire time. If you wouldn't have known better you would've thought Sika outweighed him by 20 pounds. It was ridiculous to watch him make mincemeat of a state finalist. Todd Olson of Dundee had pushed Sika to the limit in the semis, with a 7-6 decision advancing Sika on to the finals. My favorite moment of the finals had to be Ley semi-taunting Sika late in the match by urging Sika to come at him, while the MHSAA.TV broadcasters incredulously wondered why Ley was poking a bear that was destroying him so thoroughly.

Joe followed with a tighter match, but he too was handily in control throughout against Caro's Trevor Jaster, winning by a 4-1 decision. Joe didn't watch his brother's match, according to the MHSAA's Second Half coverage, due to a superstition he has in which he believes he loses if he watches his brother lose. After hearing that Steve had won, Joe went out and won, too.

A cool moment after those two matches was when Vikings' coach Cliff Sandee jumped into both the boys' arms after their victories. It was clear when I talked to Sandee after his team's loss to eventual runner-up Richmond at the Division 3 team semifinals last week that he has a very close relationship with the Sikas, who both also played for him on the football team the last two seasons. I can only imagine the emotions running through all three after the matches, the Sikas' last at Whitehall before they graduate this spring. Sandee has made mention several times during the postseason that the Sikas are even better kids than they are athletes.

Whitehall's Zack Cooper also rolled to a state title at 125, where he's been ranked #1 for most of the year. He was never really in any danger of losing — his closest decision was by 7 points, his 7-0 win in the finals. Cooper's only loss this year came in the state semifinals against Richmond, a truly stunning defeat that seemed to turn the tide of that match in favor of the Blue Devils, though Sandee was quick to point out after that one that two other highly-rated wrestlers on the team, Logan Morningstar and Reiley Brown, also were surprisingly pinned too. That just wasn't Whitehall's day.

However, thanks to Cooper and the Sikas, Saturday was.

Andy Roberts