BATTLE CREEK — Niles’ fall to Lakeshore in the Division 2 regional semifinals came down to several factors, said veteran head coach Todd Hesson.

“Duals are decided on coin tosses, bonus points, getting the matchups, staying off your backs — all the things that they did a better job of than us,” he said, following his teams 33-27 loss to their opponent on Wednesday evening.

As the defending Division 2 regional team champions, the Vikings had a history with Lakeshore, which earned the title the year before.

Just two weeks prior, Niles had seen Lakeshore on the mat and ended the night losing 49-15 to their arch rivals. However, four of their top wrestlers also had not stepped on the mat.

On Wednesday, several swing matches ended up not going in Niles’ favor.

“We’ve beat them before at 135. We’ve beat them before at 189. We lost those tonight,” Hesson said. “They stayed off their back, hit three in heavyweight. Our kids wrestled well, but in the end, Lakeshore wrestled better. We move onto individual now.”

After Saturday’s individual districts, Niles advanced nine wrestlers on to regionals, including Ryan Franco, who was a champion at 125. On Wednesday, he pinned his opponent in 2:55. Jamison Zimmerman, Mikey Robles, Skylar Means, Kade Wagely, Caiden Smith, Javond Ball, Chase Andres and Hunter Fazi will all continue.

Overall, reflecting on this past season, Hesson said his core group of seniors stand.

“They worked hard. They did everything that they were asked to do,” he said. “I’ve had them obviously four years, but some of them longer than four years. We’ve had some successes.”

Those successes include making it to team states two out of their four years as wrestlers.

“We’ve just been back and forth with Lakeshore,” Hesson said. “Again though, it’s the seniors. That’s what you typically remember each season as it passes.”

Already noticing some positives to take into next year, Hesson said freshman Ezra Vance at 140 has recently done a good job. On Wednesday, he was pinned by Lakeshore’s Shane Williams in 3:46.

“He ends up getting pinned, but Shane is going to be a top two wrestler in the state,” Hesson said. “Ezra does a good job. He wrestled well Saturday individually, and he did a good job tonight.”

Hesson also noted freshman Robles, who beat Taylor Lucas at 103 by a 12-3 decision, will be a tough competitor in the future. He also noted Anders, who was pinned at 215 in 28 seconds, will continue to improve. 

Hesson said if maybe one of the swing matches had gone differently, the outcome could have changed.

“If you go back through and look at some of the matches we had won earlier [in the season], with a six-point swing, we just needed to win one of those,” Hesson said. “[Lakeshore] got it done, so we have to give them credit.”

Lakeshore went on to defeat hosts Battle Creek Harper Creek 47-31 in the regional finals and will move onto the team state tournament.