Alma draws Freeland in state quarterfinals
They’re one of eight Division 3 wrestling teams still in the mix, vying for the state championship.
On Tuesday afternoon from Kalamazoo’s Wings Event Center the Alma Panther wrestling team will close out the 2021 season by competing in the MHSAA team state finals.
As it stands the Panthers (213) are wrestling in their fourthstraight Division 3 team quarterfinal. One year ago, they made it to the semifinals for the first time in program history and now they want to improve on that and get to the D3 state championship match.
Alma is seeded third in D3 and will square off against sixthseeded Freeland at 12:30 p.m. The winner of the Alma/freeland
match will advance to the semifinal round at 3 p.m. and face the winner of the Whitehall/hart match.
Whitehall is a second seed while Hart is seeded seventh.
The D3 state final is set to hit the mat at 6 p.m.
On Monday the Panthers had an uber-busy day with practice and Covid-19 testing protocol. From there they travelled to Kalamazoo to weigh in at 7 p.m. So much for spring break. “There’s a lot going on so we’re trying to keep everyone focused,” said Alma head coach
Randy Miniard.
On paper top-seeded Dundee is the team to beat. Dundee has won three-straight D3 state titles.
For Alma, well, it’s probably the favorite to win its quarterfinal over Freeland, but from there on out it becomes tough to call. Freeland is competing in its first team finals since 2004.
Whitehall has had a great season and has four or five wins over ranked-opponents. Alma has the same, thus if there two meet in the semifinals it could be interesting.