Fraser wrestling earns team district title, state qualifiers emerge

FRASER — All throughout the offseason, Fraser wrestling was fully aware that Warren Mott would be the obstacle standing in their way.

Fraser coach Richard Julien knew Mott had a loaded senior class with firepower across every weight class, and he knew his squad would have to come prepared against Mott if they were going to capture the Macomb Area White league title.

What Fraser didn’t know was the Roseville Panthers, a MAC Blue team, were patiently waiting for a chance to earn some retribution for last season’s loss to Fraser in the district championship meet.

So when Roseville beat the Ramblers in the Fraser Tournament back in December to open the season, the attention immediately shifted to getting the better of Roseville when districts rolled back around.

“As a coach, you bring that up that, ‘To win a district, you got to beat Roseville and you did not do that earlier in the year,’” Julien said. “They are going to be fired up to beat you. It’s something that you set goals on as a team. You keep talking about it, and not every day, but every 10 days like, ‘Hey, Roseville is coming up. We better be ready.’”

The Ramblers were ready, and a 47-21 win showed Julien and his guys just how locked in they were as the momentum of the win carried over their district championship match minutes later as the Ramblers beat Sterling Heights 84-0 for the district title on Feb. 7 at Roseville High School.

“You should’ve seen the Roseville match,” Julien said. “They were ready, we were ready, and we just took it to them. We blew the roof off their building. Just the screaming and the hollering, the atmosphere was just phenomenal.”

Another opportunity for revenge was on tap for Fraser as they went head-to-head with St. Clair Shores Lakeview, which beat Fraser at regionals last year, in the regional semifinals.

There’s always an extra bit of energy from the team when they play Lakeview because of Julien’s son, Lakeview wrestling coach Eric Julien, who is also the brother of Fraser assistant coach Kevin Julien.

“Getting back at coach Kevin’s brother and coach Rick’s son was a really nice feeling,” senior Bryce Warner said. “It’s always good competing with those guys because he’s got a really nice program over there.”

For Warner, just being healthy for a full season was a great feeling for the veteran standout as he battled injury after injury.

Suffering a meniscus tear in both knees, one coming in September 2022 and one in June 2023, Warner spent extensive time working through physical therapy and watching videos from Kevin Julien of moves he could do on the mat.

Warner said it was the love of the sport that kept him going, and his passion and determination paid off when he became one of four Fraser wrestlers this year to qualify for the state finals, including winning an individual district title.

“It was a great feeling,” Warner said. “It was something I really wanted to work hard for, and I knew was achievable.”

Alongside Warner, junior Draven McAllister, junior Stanley Anderson and sophomore Ethan Miller all qualified for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 state finals on March 1 at Ford Field. Anderson was also crowned an individual district champion.

If you need any indication of the progress Fraser wrestling has made, Julien said the state qualifiers alone speak for themselves.

“Last year, we got better but we had no state qualifiers and no superstars,” Julien said. “It was a tough year. The kids bought into the program, started working real hard, and this year we came up with four state qualifiers and we took second in the league.”

While the improvements didn’t lead to beating out Mott for the league title, Fraser gained plenty of ground on their MAC White rivals.

Fraser fell to Mott in the regional championship meet on Feb. 14 at Fraser High School 37-35 and also came close during their dual meet earlier in the season, losing 40-31.

It’s a massive jump from the 66-12 loss the Ramblers suffered to Mott last season, and the team is hoping Mott’s massive graduating class will leave a void they can exploit next season.

Fraser will graduate a strong senior class in Warner, Konrad Bogacz, a regional qualifier and district runner-up, and senior Myron Kruzel, who cut down to 150 and excelled this year.

“For him (Kruzel) to get down to 150 to fill in the gap where we needed somebody really helped the team,” Julien said.

Fraser will return with no shortage of impact wrestlers with Anderson, McAllister, Miller, sophomore Connor Wilson, junior Kadin Addy, sophomore Mitchell Nash, and freshman Austin Wilson all set to headline the 2024-2025 Ramblers.

“I feel like we’re going to be way better,” Miller said. “We might even make it to states next year because we got a lot of guys coming back that are really good.”