Iron Mountain, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Mountaineers at Iron Mountain High School get to show off their pride today as the wrestling team heads off to its team state finals in Kalamazoo.
The team also has seven individual qualifying wrestlers who will compete in Detroit’s Ford Field next Friday and Saturday. The seven qualifiers are: Fulton Stroud, Shawn McGuire, Alex Wilson, Daniel Manier, Shayna Hruska, Tyler Winch, and Evan Haferkorn.
Shayna Hruska, a junior who has been wrestling since age 8, says it was the mountaineers that inspired her to try the sport. She is the first in her family to become a wrestler.
“Our team has worked really hard, and we’re really excited to be able to go down to team state again for the second time. We’re all really excited for individual state, and it’s what we’ve been waiting for all season,” Hruska commented about the upcoming championships.
Senior co-captain Shawn McGuire said the team is going to pull out all the stops for team state finals against Hudson. “I want them to know that we’re coming with all we got,” McGuire stated. He added that they are going to “bring all the hammers”.
This season has exceeded McGuire’s expectations. “I think we did better than expected. Coming off a big year like last year, we kind of didn’t know if we would have enough kids in to fulfill our expectations, and we got our kids in, and you know we’re working hard so, we’re doing really good,” McGuire went on.
Senior co-captain Evan Haferkorn explained how the individuals will advance. “The seven that made it to the state tournament are going to be wrestling at Ford Field.” He added that, “It’s a cool experience, it’s always fun to wrestle down there, I wrestled there once my junior year and that was an awesome experience coming forth.” He added that he wanted to thank his grandma Debbie for always being there.
The team is on its way this morning for the team state meet against Hudson after a heartwarming send-off ceremony yesterday, where the team walked the halls of North Elementary while the younger children cheered and chanted, waving their handmade signs of support. Both co-captains agreed that it will be tough, and all three teammates agreed that they will give it their best shot, have fun, and represent their school with pride.
Those interested in helping cover the costs of hauling the team’s trophies back to the U.P. can label donations to “Coach Cory McLaren, Wrestling” at Iron Mountain High School. Donations are also being accepted at North Elementary, and First National Bank.
