All in mat family

Jenerou duo advances

By John Vrancic - dailypress.net
By John Vrancic

dailypress.net



MUNISING — Two members of the Jenerou family extended their wrestling seasons by placing in Saturday’s Division 4 individual district.

Former Manistique wrestler Sammy Jenerou placed second at 103 pounds and Emerald sophomore Mike Jenerou took fourth at 140.

Those achievements enable the brother/sister combo to advance to Saturday’s individual regionals at Rogers City.

Sammy Jenerou, now a senior at Newberry High School, was pinned by Iron Mountain freshman Cameron Jones one minute, 47 seconds into the championship bout.

“I hadn’t wrestled him (Jones) yet this year,” said Sammy, who transferred to Newberry last fall through school of choice. “I didn’t know what to expect. This kind of felt like the U.P. Finals. I think the (individual) regionals will be exciting. Even though we have a small team in numbers, we have some good wrestlers. It feels great to be going down to Rogers City.”

Sammy reached the title match by outlasting St. Ignace’s Shawn Horn 13-11 in the semifinals.

“This season was a lot shorter,” said Sammy, who regained her eligibility in January. “I knew most of the guys on the team from before, but it was still a big adjustment. I miss Manistique. I feel bad for them because they don’t have a 103-pounder.”

Mike Jenerou’s name will go down in history as the first Manistique wrestler to compete beyond districts.

“This is a big accomplishment,” said Mike. “It’s kind of cool to be the first one from our school to wrestle in a regional. Only, I wish a couple of our other guys could have also moved on. It’s kind of different having my sister on a different team. I wish she was on our team. Yet, we’ve been rooting for each other all season and will continue to do that in Rogers City.”

Mike Jenerou fell to Gwinn junior Corey Peterson 8-6 on a near fall in the closing seconds of their third-place match. Mike built a 4-0 advantage early in the second period. Peterman then got his first near fall early in the third before the two grapplers exchanged reversals, setting the stage for a nailbiting finish.

“I could have wrestled better,” said Mike. “But then we got into the second period and my energy seemed to disappear.”

The Emeralds lost Tim Marks (160) to a dislocated elbow during the tourney.

“That was unfortunate for Tim,” said Emeralds’ coach Everett Wood. “Mike wrestled well all day. Alex Rubick (171) was our team leader all year, but didn’t have his best day. I know this is disappointing for him. But in all fairness to Alex, he was in a very tough weight class. We’re a little disappointed. We thought we had a chance to qualify three.”

Wood says he’s happy Upper Peninsula wrestlers finally get to compete in the statewide individual tournament.

“If your team doesn’t win a district title, this offers you a second chance to move on,” he added. “Last year, after the U.P. Finals it was over. This year, you’re wrestling for something. There were a lot of good, though matches here today.”