County teams are underdogs at Saturday's SEC wrestling championships

Individual and team champions will be determined at Saturday’s Southeastern Conference wrestling tournament, and for the eight participating Washtenaw County schools, it will be an uphill battle if they hope to compete for top honors.

Lenawee County powers Adrian (9-1) and Tecumseh (8-2) enter the championships atop the White Division standings, with Chelsea (6-4), Dexter (5-5), Ypsilanti (3-7), and Lincoln (1-9) occupying spots 3-6. In the Red Division, two teams from Monroe County - Temperance Bedford (10-0) and Monroe (7-3) - are ahead of Saline (4-6), Pioneer (2-8) and Huron (0-10).

But with the format of the individual tournament, hosted by first-year SEC member Ypsilanti, even teams in last place hypothetically have a shot at vying for a league title.

“In the regular season you get two points for a dual win and at the conference tournament you get two points for every team you finish ahead of,” explained Saline Coach Scott Marvin.

Because Skyline, which has competed against junior varsity competition all year, will compete in Saturday’s tournament, the potential exists for every team to catapult any other in the regular season standings.

With the addition of Skyline, Monroe and Ypsilanti, the SEC will adopt its third tournament format in four years. Each weight class will be split into four three-person pools based on record and disregarding division alignment. After everyone in each pool wrestles, the top finishers will square off in a four-person championship bracket, and the No. 2 wrestlers from every pool will compete in a consolation bracket.

An SEC tournament championship team title will be awarded, as well as separate Red and White division accolades. Individual All-Conference awards will be awarded for first through third place finishers, again, disregarding division.

“I like the format because it puts all the wrestlers together that should be together,” said Dexter coach Shane Rodriguez. “This way it kind of puts people together based on similar skill sets, which should lead to more interesting matches throughout the day."

Though matches to determine first through eighth place will be wrestled, points will stop being awarded at sixth.

“I told my kids they’re going to need to wrestle their best (to compete for a team title) and those capable of being league champs can hopefully do it,” said Chelsea coach Kerry Kargel. “It’s quite a ways to dig out, but I think we can upset some other schools. Even Bedford, Tecumseh and Adrian are going to have to struggle, because we all have some good athletes that can excel and get in the finals.

“I don’t see any school dominating. I don’t see that. I might be wrong, but that’s my prediction,” Kargel added, pointing out teams at the bottom of the standings have potential champions in their lineups.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561.