AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Results of the 2004 Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 Lower Peninsula Individual Wrestling Finals on Saturday at The Palace of Auburn Hills:

Seventh Place

103 pounds--Amy Berridge, Martin dec. Chris Deneau, Athens, 6-4

AUBURN HILLS -- There is no doubt who the crowd favorite is at the high school wrestling individual state finals.

A loud roar of "2" filled The Palace Friday as Martin's Amy Berridge recorded a two-point takedown, approximately 20 seconds into overtime, to knock off Bronson's Drew Ferry, 2-0, in a Division 4 103-pound consolation match.

The win guaranteed a medal for Berridge, who continues to add to her resume of history-making accomplishments.

On Thursday, Berridge became the first female wrestler in Michigan High School Athletic Association history to win a match at the individual state finals when she knocked off Athens freshman Chris Deneau, 8-7.

After that match, Martin head coach Pete Boyd guaranteed Berridge would medal at the finals. His confidence may have been a boost for Berridge, who had to win her last match Friday to be in contention for one of the eight medals handed out in each weight class.

She lost her first match of the day, 6-4, to Marlette sophomore Devin Hayward.

"I really wanted to win that one," Berridge said. "I wanted to get to the semifinals and finals."

She won't do that, but will continue to make history today. No matter where she places, she will be remembered not just as a good female wrestler, but as a Division 4, 103-pound all-stater.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- A Martin senior has made history by becoming the first girl to win a match in the MHSAA Individual State Wrestling Finals.

Amy Berridge took an 8-7 decision over Athens freshman Chris Deneau on Thursday at The Palace of Auburn Hills, the Kalamazoo Gazette and The Detroit News reported. She is the fifth girl to qualify for the individual finals.

"I knew this would be my biggest challenge to win that first match," Berridge said.

Berridge, who improved to 42-15, put Deneau on his back in the opening period of the Division 4 match in the 103-pound weight class. She carried a 5-4 lead into the third period and picked up another two points to increase the advantage to 7-4.

MARTIN

One recent night, a woman from Kent City sat at the edge of her seat at a high school wrestling match, watching in anticipation as Amy Berridge of Martin took on an opponent.

Little did the woman know that Berridge's father, Tim, was sitting right next to her.

"When Amy is wrestling, you look around and see these women in the crowd and it's like Amy is wrestling for every woman out there," he said. "You'll be in the crowd and all these women will be cheering her on."

That scene could be repeated several times this week. Berridge, a senior who has a 39-13 record and is the fifth female to ever qualify for the Michigan High School Athletic Association individual wrestling championships, will step onto the wrestling mats Thursday at the Palace at Auburn Hills on the verge of history.

The only Michigan female to qualify for the state championships two consecutive years, Berridge will attempt to be the first-ever in the state and one of the few in the nation to medal in a state championship.

None of the previous four girls has even won a match at the state championships.

But it is not the uniqueness of being a female wrestler that fully motivates Berridge. She is like any other student-athlete at Martin High School: She goes to school, practices with her teammates after school and then goes home and completes her homework assignments. A smile from her proud dad, a high-five from a teammate, mean as much as anything.

"I'm not really doing it for people's reactions," she said. "I'm doing it for myself. If I was doing it for anybody, it would be for my parents and my team. If my dad was proud of me, that would mean more than someone saying, 'Look, you're the best girl ever.'"

"These kids want her to win," Tim Berridge said of Amy's teammates. "They count on her just like they do a guy."

Amy Berridge qualified for the prep wrestling individual state finals two weeks ago when she finished fourth at a Division 4 regional at Hart.

"I didn't even think about going to state or anything," she said. "I just thought it was for awesome people. I thought I'd do my best and whatever happens, happens."

A wrestling family

Berridge got turned on to wrestling in seventh grade after watching younger brother T.J. and older sister Aundria, who also wrestled at Martin.

"My brother started wrestling when he was pretty little," she said. "My sister did it a year or two before me. My dad always said I should try it, and when I was in seventh grade, I tried it.

"I wasn't really good at first but my dad showed me some things and I got better as the years went on."

Over the years, the raised eyebrows included those of people who spoke out against her being on the mat, wrestling against boys. Those voices are silent now. Berridge is simply viewed as an important part of a wrestling team that nearly won a state team championship Saturday in Battle Creek.

"She's not looked at as a girl, she's looked at as a teammate," Martin senior captain Noah Boyd said. "She works hard, she comes to all the practices, she wins a majority of her matches. ... She's tough."

Tough enough to win more than 140 matches in her career and win a conference championship this year, Berridge has garnered a variety of reactions from opponents over the years. She is ranked second in the nation at 100 pounds by the United States Girls Wrestling Association.

"There are a few different reactions," she said. "Some that don't know about me say, 'I get a girl?' Some are, 'I'm not going to lose to a girl,' and some say they are going to beat me."

Early in her career there were doubters. Martin head coach Pete Boyd recalls a time when a parent from another school came out of the crowd and confronted him for having a girl wrestling on his team.

"I had one guy come down and said girls should not be wrestling on the mat," Boyd said. "I said I hope your kid's not wrestling her because you're going to be sorry."

Assistant coach Ken DeMann has worked with Berridge for six years. He was the junior high coach when she first came out for wrestling in seventh grade.

"She's like any other wrestler, she's gotten better every year," he said. "Not that she was a bad wrestler when she started. I think it comes down to the fact that the team knows she's our 103-pounder. They are confident in her ability."

They should be. She has been taught by one of the most well-respected coaches in the area in Boyd.

"Pete is the kind of guy, he gives the student all the tools they need to be a champion and it's up to the student or athlete to use that," Tim Berridge said.

It helps that Martin has had female wrestlers before. Berridge's sister Aundria wrestled for Boyd when Berridge was a freshman.

"I feel like if you have the qualities to be in a sport, you should," said Aundria Sunnerville, who recently moved to California with her husband. "You shouldn't be discriminated against because of your sex. I was happy and pleased with my community."

Making history

Before Berridge, four girls made the trip to the individual state finals in Michigan.

In 1999, Saginaw Buena Vista's Cynthia Harrold became the first female to compete at the state finals. The next year, Davison's Keristen LaBelle, Caledonia's Lynde Baltrusait and Sandra Padnon of Mason County Central followed suit.

Was it a big deal? LaBelle was featured in USA Today and in a segment on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

"We did some bending over backwards to make sure she was on the same mat for every match," said John Johnson of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

The attention will be there for Berridge this weekend, whether it's welcomed or not. One thing that Berridge's accomplishments, along with that of the previous females to compete at the state meet, could do is garner more attention from female athletes interested in pursuing wrestling.

"Anytime you have a girl who is successful in a predominantly male sport, other girls are going to want to follow her lead," Johnson said.

The numbers are increasing. In the 2002-2003 high school participation survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations, 239,845 male wrestlers were listed. There were 3,769 females.

"It's fairly unusual for girls to wrestle," federation spokesman Bruce Howard said. "That phenomenon has increased but it is fairly unusual for a girl to medal at a state tournament."

Very few have. Erica Dye of Elizabeth, W. Va., placed second in the state's lowest weight class in 2002. Miyo Yamamoto, an exchange student from Japan who wrestled at a high school in Phoenix, finished sixth in her weight class in the late '90s.

BANGOR -- It was Valentine's Day, but Martin 103-pounder Amy Berridge (30-11) had no love for opponent Brett Golliher of Decatur here Saturday afternoon.

"He (Golliher) was kind of like telling me to my face, that I was going to lose," Berridge said. "So, I just figured I would be really aggressive and beat him."

Beat him she did, pinning Golliher at the 2:43 mark and securing her second Southwestern Athletic Conference title in three years.

The senior was one of five Clippers to secure a conference championship, making Martin SAC champs for the fourth year in a row, with a team score of 207.5.

"We knew we had the league (title). We just figured we needed a split and do half and half," Martin coach Pete Boyd said. "The kids just came in wanting to win.

The Clippers were up 181-162 on host Bangor just before the championship round began.

The Vikings drew to within two points after Bangor heavyweight Jaime Llerena lost 3-0 to three-time conference champ Brian Leighton (Gobles).

"After the heavyweight match we had closed the gap to two points and we only had one kid left in the finals," Bangor coach Dennis Paquette said.

Bangor closed that gap with three straight champions at 171, 189 and 215 pounds.

Tom McColl (42-4) took the 171-pound title by pinning Martin's Aaron Fitzpatrick with :28 left in the third period.

"Once I got on top of him, I had to hold him down," McColl said.

Dustin Gordon (45-0) was in control throughout his 189-pound match against Chris Nichols of Martin, winning a 9-1 decision.

"He seemed like more of a defensive wrestler," Gordon said of Rasmussen. "He couldn't stop my shot when I wanted to get in."

At 215 pounds, it was Levon Mock (41-4) pinning Jordan Rasmussen at 3:31. Mock, a senior, also earned his 150th career win during the first round of the tournament.

"That's a big milestone, and we're real proud of him," Paquette said. "He's definitely earned everything ... He's the all-American boy."

But, Martin went on to take the next four of seven weight classes.

Jeff Salmon (112), Noah Boyd (125), Zach Hettinger (130) and Seth Conley (135) all won SAC titles for the Clippers.

"It makes it more important because we're (Bangor-Martin) both racing for it (conference tittle)," Conley said. "You've got to get'em where you can get'em, that's how you win conferences."