Rochester Wrestlers Strong on Day One of State Finals

The individual wrestling state finals kicked off on Thursday afternoon at The Palace of Auburn Hills with hundreds of wrestlers from around the state hitting the mat.

Rochester Perfect

It was a long day for 's wrestlers, but it was a good one.

The Falcons brought six wrestlers to the state finals. It just so happened that they wrestled the first and last match of the first day of the tournament.

Shwan Shadaia (189 pounds) opened the state finals by pinning Tayvon Speed with :52 seconds left in the second round. Shadaia used a fireman's carry to get Speed on his back for the pin.

"I really wanted to start off strong," Shadaia said. "I didn't want to let him have a chance to take lead."

Rochester senior Cody DeVoe wrestled the final match Thursday. DeVoe needed a takedown in overtime to secure the 3-1 victory over Knute Hoffman from Midland (171 pounds).

DeVoe's win kept the Falcons a perfect 6-0 on the day. All six Rochester wrestlers will compete Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals.

Stoney Creek Heavyweights Advance

's Serge Andreou advanced on 5-3 decision over Benjamin Dominguez from Southgate Anderson. Andreou scored two takedowns in the final 40 seconds of the match.

The match was tied 1-1 with 37 seconds to go when Andreou hit a takedown going out of bounds. Southgate coaches thought both wrestlers were out at the time of the takedown.

"It was close," Stoney Creek coach Jeff Smart said. "I thought he (Andreou) had his feet in and was sliding out of bounds as the referee gave him two points."

After that, Andreou had to block multiple takedown attempts from Dominguez.

"It was an awfully long 30 seconds," Smart said laughing.

Teammate Nick Gajdzik wrestled on the same mat right after Andreou. The undefeated 285 pound grappler quickly took care of business. He pinned Liam Curtis from Traverse City in 40 seconds.

Andreou joked with Gajdzik after the win, "I could say what took you so long."

It was the 150th win of Gajdzik’s high school career. Every victory pushes the Stoney Creek school record up higher.

This is Gajdzik third appearance in the state finals, and unlike his opponent on Thursday he didn't have a deer in the headlights look.

"It takes some of the edge off," Gajdzik said of his experience.

It also helps him to deal with the long breaks in between matches. He won't wrestle again until Friday.

"It's hard to get in a rhythm here because the matches are so spread out," he said. "When the whistle blows, you just have to go full speed ahead."

Patch is covering all three days of the tournament, providing updates from our live blog. Make sure to follow along on Friday and Saturday for results, photos and more!

Wrestling State Finals Coverage