All three (3) of Zeeland East’s State qualifiers placed at the MHSAA Individual State Wrestling Finals this weekend at Ford Field. Senior Parker Williams led the group finishing runner-up at 285, Freshman JJ Ledford finished in 3^rd at 113, and Junior Gavin Drenten finished in 6^th at 138. 

Following his familiar pattern this season Parker Williams pinned his way to the semi-finals pinning George Daniel of Fowlerville in 40 seconds in round one and then Dasan Smith of Marquete in 34 seconds in the quarterfinals.  The semi-finals saw Parker in a rematch with Ryan Dimmick of St Johns.  Parker pinned Ryan earlier this season in the finals of the Ionia tournament. Ryan was ready for Parker this time and pushed the match to an 8-4 decision by Parker to advance to the finals.  The finals saw Parker against the number one seed, number 1 ranked D2 Heavyweight, and returning State Champion James Mahon of Goodrich.  The match started slowly with each wrestler gauging their opponent. With only 23 second left in the first period Parker threw James to the mat. Parker was only centimeters away from the pin but James was able to recover and get off his back.  The rest of the match saw Parkers 5-0 slowly erode to eventually place as State Runner Up with a final score of 8-9.  Parker ends his year with a 46-3 record with the only losses to the State Champion and the 3^rd Place finisher (Aiden Young of Plainwell).  Parker ends his career at Zeeland with 94 career wins

JJ Ledford entered the day as the fourth seed and finished above his seed in 3^rd Place.  JJ started his tournament off with a 10-8  victory over Jason Cranick of Gaylord on Friday morning. JJ then defeated 7^th Place finisher Carson Gemmel of New Boston Huron 9-1 in the quarter finals. The semi-finals saw JJ fall to 1^st seed, the number one ranked 113, and eventual runner-up Cristian Haslem of St Clair with a fall at 5:05.  Saturday’s consolation semi-finals saw JJ defeat eventual 5^th Place finisher Richard Davis of Brother Rice 4-0 to advance.  The consolation finals saw JJ pin Adrain’s Diego Orozco to secure his 3^rd Place finish.  JJ finished his freshman campaign with a record of 43-3 and the highest freshman finish in Zeeland East’s history.  JJs only losses on the year were to  Haslem this weekend who finished as a runner-up, Devan Garcia of Harper Creek who was the D2 113 State Champion, and Martin’s Logan Gilbert the D4 106 State Champion. 

Gavin Drenten, battling through injury, finished his season with a strong performance finishing in 6^th Place in an extremely difficult weight class.  Gavin defeated Drew Corcoran of Lake Fenton in round one by fall at 2:58.  The quarterfinals saw Gavin lose to runner-up Landon Thomas of St Joseph by a 7-2 decision.  The consolation rounds found Gavin versus a familiar opponent, Austin Gyorkos of Plainwell.  Gavin and Austin have faced each other a few times this year and last.  They even train together at the same wrestling club in the off-season. Gavin was able to defeat Austin 14-7 to advance to the consolation semi-finals. The consolation semi-finals pitted Gavin versus the number one ranked 138, and eventual 3^rd Place finisher Brody Orcutt of Goodrich.  Brody defeated Gavin 5-2.  The 5^th place finals match saw Gavin against former State Champion and multi-time placer Adam Polk of Pontiac.  Gavin lost to Polk 9-16 to finish in 6^th Place.    Gavin closes the books on his junior year with a record of 45-4 and running career record of 136-18.