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The Pioneers had four individual champs and a pair of third place finishers in a very impressive showing at the tournament held at Port Huron Northern High School. Sanilac County was also represented by two other champions - Andre Sanson of Brown City and Bernie Marx of Sandusky.

"We had six guys in the finals or consolations and all six won their last match, and that was huge," stated a proud Joe Lilly, Cros-Lex coach. The Pioneers finished fourth in the team standings out of 15 schools.

"We only went with nine guy., So, all things considered, taking fourth out of 15, and having the most individual champions, this was a huge accomplishment."

Donnie Corby, one of the Pioneers' senior leaders, captured one of the top honors of the meet, winning MVP in the upper weight classes. Corby, now 28-0 on the season breezed through the 145 pound weight class with two first period pins and a technical fall in the second period of the title match.. Corby is a three-time champion at the Classic and a two-time MVP.

The surprise of the day for C-L came from Josh Torrez at 171 pounds. The Pioneer junior (22-6) upset John Mattox of Marysville, 5-4, in the finals.

"That was a huge accomplishment," said Lilly. "That was his first tournament he's ever won. He was pretty excited. He went in as the third seed and fought his way through."

Senior Adam Palleschi (26-1) of Cros-Lex completely destroyed his competition at 215 pounds. It took just two minutes and thirty seconds, total, to pin all three opponents.

The fourth Pioneer champion was senior Zach Fabian (28-4). In the title match at 160 pounds, he stopped Ryan Baker of Imlay City on a 9-7 decision.

"It was tied 7-7 with about 10 seconds left," described Lilly, " and Zach hit a drive double to take him down. That was a heck of a match."

The Pioneers had third place finishes from Shane DuRussel at 130 and Jacob Tanner at 140. DuRussel avenged a loss earlier in the season to a Cass City wrestler before losing to Yale's Andrew Schutt. He then scored an 11-2 decision in the consolation finals. Meanwhile, Tanner, after falling in the semifinals to the eventual 140 pound champion, pinned Clay Cowell of Capac in the consolation match.

Sandusky's Marx raised his record to 22-0 this season and, perhaps, was not at his best.

"Bernie didn't wrestle very well and still won," noted Coach Mike Stoliker of Sandusky. " But, he figured out a way to win a couple of good matches."

Marx, a junior for the Redskins, scored a 4-1 decision over Yale's David Hill in the semis and then defeated Matt Kraft of Anchor Bay, 6-0, in the championship match.

Four other Redskin grapplers had two wins apiece on the day - Clint Northrop (171), Jesse Pagel (189), Nick Willing (189), and Erik Maitland (285).

Sanson, a senior for Brown City, repeated as champion at 135 pounds with his 6-4 decision over Mike Smith of Algonac. Sanson, a three-time Division 4 State qualifier, is now 20-4 this season.