Ryan Spitza | Marquette Mining Journal Gladstone’s Nick Dawson attempts to take down Iron Mountain’s Trevor Malburg in the 125-pound final during the Mid-Peninsula Conference wrestling meet at Westwood High School in Ishpeming Saturday afternoon.

ISHPEMING — Seven Upper Peninsula varsity wrestling teams looked to get in one final tuneup before team and individual districts coming up this week during the Mid-Peninsula Conference meet at Westwood High School on Saturday.

Iron Mountain claimed the M-PC team title with 174 points, followed by Westwood with 158.5, Gladstone 136.5, Negaunee 98, Ishpeming 54, Manistique 47 and Gwinn 16.

It was Iron Mountain’s first M-PC crown in three seasons, and head coach Cory McLaren was satisfied with getting his senior wrestlers a second conference championship.

“Last time we had this was three years ago so this is our seniors’ second time with the conference championship,” he said. “We came into the season with 11 guys, so that’s nice since there’s 14 roster spots.”

McClaren added he hopes the victory will give his team some momentum going into the MHSAA team and individual district meets.

“We have districts with Bark River-Harris on Thursday, so we’ve got to be ready for that and then it’s onto individuals in Munising. Hopefully this will get us ready for that.

“It was a great day for us. I’m proud of all my guys, they wrestled great. We had eight out of 11 guys get medals and that was great.”

Westwood head coach Dan Carlson agreed with McLaren’s sentiment, hoping his Patriots will be set to go when they travel to Gwinn on Wednesday night for team districts after a strong second-place finish on Saturday.

“It was a good meet getting ready for districts,” he said. “Hopefully we show a little more fire in districts and we can get these guys ready to go.

“We know who our competition is in districts so we’ll go out there and get them. We’ll try to do better next time.”

The Mountaineers had seven wrestlers reach the final round, the first being Parker Stroud, who pinned Gladstone’s Lane Matzke in the 112-pound division in 3 minutes, 14 seconds.

Later on, Iron Mountain went on to win four straight matches in the 130, 135, 140 and 145 finals.

At 130, Dow Dawson defeated Manistique’s Tony Williams by major decision, 19-7. At 135 was Tre Sabotta topping Westwood’s Connor Traver by fall at 1:44.

Preston Roberts took the 140 final over Westwood’s Tyler Lindholm by major decision, 14-0. Manistique’s Josiah Gilroy placed third.

Jon Carrion of Iron Mountain defeated Finn Helppi of Negaunee in the 145 class by fall at 3:36.

The Patriots had six wrestlers in the finals, with three winning titles.

The first Westwood victory came in the 160 final, with Rocco Carlson defeating Gwinn’s Tyler MacMillan by technical fall, 17-1.

Rocco Carlson said he was happy to win his match to give his team some momentum going into districts.

“A lot of us have been sick lately and we’ve had to recover from that,” he said. “It’s about hard work and feeling better going forward.”

The Patriots also took the final two matches of the day, with Sam Gilles winning the 215 finale over Gladstone’s Cole Dawson by major decision, 13-0.

At 285, Westwood teammate Jackson Vidlund defeated Isaac Brewster of Manistique by fall at 2:41. Brett Boudreau of Gladstone placed third.

Ishpeming also had some finals success, winning two of four.

In the third match of the day at 119, it was Jaeger Wilson for the Hematites defeating Hunter Solis of Gladstone by decision, 14-12, in one of the closest finals of the afternoon.

Later at 171, Ishpeming’s Alaric Martin topped Caleb Burklund of Iron Mountain by decision, 5-0.

For Negaunee, Leo Helppi took the top spot in the 189 final, topping Ishpeming’s Andre Walsh by fall at 5:18. The Miners had eight wrestlers reach the podium.

Gwinn’s only medal came at the hands of MacMillan, who lost to Carlson in the 160 finale.

Westwood, Ishpeming and Gwinn participate in a team Division 4 district tournament at Gwinn on Wednesday. Negaunee goes to Gladstone for a four-team Division 3 district with the Braves, Kingsford and Menominee on Thursday.

Championship match summary:

103 — Michael Brazeau (GLD) pinned Christian Ryan (WWD) 3:07

112 — Parker Stroud (IMT) pinned Lane Matzke (GLD) 3:14

119 — Jaeger Wilson (ISH) dec. Hunter Solis (GLD) 14-12

125 — Nick Dawson (GLD) dec. Trevor Malburg (IMT) 17-2

130 — Dow Dawson (IMT) dec. Tony Williams (MAN) 19-7

135 — Tre Sabotta (IMT) pinned Connor Traver (WWD) 1:44

140 — Preston Roberts (IMT) dec. Tyler Lindholm (WWD) 14-0

145 — Jon Carrion (IMT) pinned Finn Helppi (NEG) 3:36

152 — Cole Hansen (GLD) pinned Dawson Delongchamp (ISH) 1:09

160 — Rocco Carlson (WWD) dec. Tyler MacMillan (GWN) 17-1

171 — Alaric Martin (ISH) dec. Caleb Burklund (IMT) 5-0

189 — Leo Helppi (NEG) pinned Andre Walsh (ISH) 5:18

215 — Sam Gilles (WWD) dec. Cole Dawson (GLD) 13-0

285 — Jackson Vidlund (WWD) pinned Isaac Brewster (MAN) 2:41