By Kristi McDevitt
Sports Correspondent
The Wildcat wrestlers continued their dominance on the mat by winning the District championship last Thursday at Ortonville Brandon.
Wrestlers, dominance, districts.
Those words have become near synonyms of each other over the past decade.
The Wildcats? first district title in wrestling came exactly a decade ago in 1996.
Since then the ‘Cats have dominated their district competition by winning the district championship in seven of the last eight years.
The Wildcat wrestler’s last defeat in district competition came in 2002 when Oxford tied Holly, however due to district advancement, a winner had to be declared by implementing the MHSAA tie breaker procedure.
That eventually gave Holly the victory and subsequently gave Oxford the only blemish on their eight year run.
This year’s squad was determined not to let that happen again. To be sure, the Wildcats hammered Brandon 65-10 in the semi-finals and ripped through Fenton 50-21 in the district finals.
The Wildcats won 12 of the 14 weight classes against Brandon. Posting wins for Oxford were Calvin Cavanaugh, Mike Upshur, Nathan Musgrove, Bo Cantara, Bobby Rhodes, Kyle Brammer, Mike May, Mike Myer, Zach Line, John Logan, Nick Murray and Adam Duncan.
Against Fenton the ‘Cats won 10 of the 14 matches. Aaron Wroblewski, Mike Upshur, Nathan Musgrove, Kyle Brammer, Mike May, Mike Myer, Brent Mueller, Zach Line, John Logan, Nick Murray and Adam Duncan each notched victories against the Tigers.
Senior captain Mike May reached a milestone in an outstanding 4-year varsity-wrestling career by recording his 100th career win in his first match Thursday evening. May pinned Dylan Kent of Brandon in 1:32 to join just a handful of Alumni to have ever achieved such a feat.
‘It’s been a goal of mine this season.? May commented after the win.
? I knew it was within reach at the beginning of the year, but I knew I was going to have to have my best season ever to reach it.?
‘He officially joined our exclusive 100 win club tonight.? Head coach Paul McDevitt remarked.
‘His name will go up on the board in the wrestling room for future wrestlers to admire.?
The wrestlers now face Linden in the Regional semi-finals this Wednesday at Fenton High School.
‘It’s going to be a rematch with a lot at stake.? McDevitt noted.
‘The guys have had a great rivalry with Linden this year. I imagine we will come out and give it our best shot and see what happens.
The winner will certainly have the inside track on advancing to the State quarter-finals.?
The winner of the Linden-Oxford match will face the winner of the North Farmington-Avondale match for the Regional title and a trip to Battle Creek for the State Championship.
Oxford has already defeated Avondale this season and finished far ahead of North Farmington in the Oakland County tournament.
On Saturday, the wrestlers competed in the individual district competition. The top four from each weight class will advance to regionals.
From there, the top four will advance to the individual state finals to be held at the Palace of Auburn Hills March 9-11.
Despite no individual District champions, Oxford had seven individuals qualify for regional competition this weekend.
Brent Mueller, Nick Murray, John Logan and Adam Duncan each finished second while Mike Upshur and Mike May were third.
Bobby Rhodes rounded out the Wildcat qualifiers by placing fourth. Regional competition will be held on Saturday at Owosso High School.

By winning the district title last week, Oxford’s wrestlers got one step closer to their goal of competing in the state tournament.
‘We’re in the mix right now,? said Coach Scott Couch.
Oxford won team districts last week by bearing Fenton 55-9 and Ortonville-Brandon 51-15.
‘If you’re wrestling strong it shows,? Couch said.
The team’s overall record is now 25-2. The grapplers compete in team regionals Feb. 21 at Linden.
Over the weekend, Oxford wrestlers in 11 of the 14 weight classes placed in the individual districts thereby qualifying for individual regionals Feb. 24 at Clio.
‘To get 11 guys through individual districts says a lot for this team,? Couch said.
Brent Mueller (160) and John Logan (215) were champions in their respective weight classes.
Finishing second in their classes were Kyle Brammer (130), Bobby Rhodes (135), Mike Myer (145) and Zach Line (189). Taking third were Mike Upshur (119), Geoffrey Charles (171) and Aaron Moore (275).
Zac Miller (103) and Chris Sunman (152) both finished fourth in their classes.

The Oxford Wildcat wrestlers continued their drive toward a possible state team title and individual titles with victories in district wrestling competitions last week.
The Cats easily defeated Davison, 66-16, and then stormed past Grand Blanc, 55-12, to win the district championship hosted at Oxford High School.
Last season, the Wildcats finished second in the state to champion Lowell. The two powerhouses may be on another collision course for a state title.
Oxford was undefeated in Flint Metro League play this season and set a new league record for the most points scored in the FML team meet with 274.5 points, eclipsing the record the Cats set last year.
Two days after the team district title, the squad traveled to Saginaw to compete in the individual championships and had equal success. Oxford placed 13 of its wrestlers in the regional individual championships, scheduled for Wednesday at Davison.
The squad goes back to Saginaw on Saturday to compete for the regional team championship.
Coach Scott Couch said he was very happy with the district team championship and the individuals? achievements.
‘The regionals will be tough but to get 13 guys in is very good. We are looking for good things at the regional.?
As far as the team district victory, Couch said he was not sure how well his squad would perform against Davison, a perennial wrestling powerhouse and a group that had not faced the Wildcats all year.
‘We had a couple of guys out with injuries, so we didn’t know about Davison,? Couch said. ‘But we wrestled tough and beat up on Davison. We did a great job across the board.?
The Wildcats had faced Grand Blanc previously and knew what to expect. The team easily rolled over the Bobcats to clinch the district title.
The Wildcats who qualified for regional competition are: First place: 103 – Keegan Cantara, 140 ? Matthew Frisch, 145 ? Dakota Peasley, 215 ? Prescott Line. Second place: 112 ? Jacob Peasley, 140 ? Ben Ralston, 160 ? A.J. Logan. Third place: 103 – Rocco Borg, 112 ? Steven Ferguson, 119 ? Kyle Hill, 130 – Mike Thomas, 125 ? Jack Pratt. Third place: 171 – Jack Barrie.

The Wildcats continued their impressive season with dominating victories over Avondale and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s en route to the District Championship on Feb 19.
The championship match against St. Mary’s was one sided as the Wildcats captured 12 victories, 10 by pinfall in their 72-9 dismantling.
145-lbs Bo Cantara stormed Oxford out of the gate early, getting a first period pin. After that, it went one pinfall after another for the Wildcats, rolling them to a 63-0 lead before St. Mary’s even knew what hit them.
Mike Myer, Jake Stumph, Jack Barrie, Nick Hadorn, Brandon Parker, Dylan Smith, Josh Roe and Brandon Smith all recorded pinfall victories for the Wildcats.
The lopsided victory came on the heels of another one-sided affair as the Wildcats took apart Avondale 62-6. The Wildcats launched out to a 28-0 lead after the first six matches, three of which were decided by pinfall.
Up next for the Wildcats is Lapeer East in the team regionals.
‘Our guys wrestled tough,? said Oxford Head Coach Scott Couch. ‘We have two big duel meets next week starting with Lapeer East.?
The boys continued their winning ways on Saturday, Feb 21 at the Individual Districts. They managed to send 13 out of 14 wrestlers on to the Individual Regionals, along the way claiming titles in six different weight classes.
125-lbs Frish, 145-lbs Cantara, 152-lb Myer, 160-lbs AJ Logan, 215-lbs Prescott Line and Heavyweight Smith were all able to say that they were champions of their weight division. 140-lb Ben Ralston came in second, while 103-lb Jacob Peasley, 112-lb Cavanaugh, 130-lb Zac Miller, 171-lb Geoffery Charles and 189-lb Josh Villarreal came in third. 119-lb Roe finished fourth, rounding out the successful day on the mat.