The Dundee High School wrestling team recently took a chink out of powerful Bedford's perennial superiority, laid claim to a state title, and developed into arguably the best squad in Michigan.

Despite fielding just 16 wrestlers this past season, the Vikings fought their way to a 28-1-1 dual meet record and captured a Division 4 team dual meet championship. Dundee, which was fortunate just to fill all 14 weight classes, upset Goliath-like Bedford in a dual meet and the underdog Vikings also bettered the established bigger school in two tournaments.

“It's pretty rare,” Dundee head coach Tim Roberts said of the win over the Mules. “To beat them in a dual is very hard. They've had the best program in Michigan, year in and year out, for the last 20 years.

“But winning state was even better. Beating Bedford was a secondary thing. It's a nice thing to look back on later. But winning state was the ultimate goal.”

The Vikings racked up an astonishing 390 points and yielded just 78 in their seven postseason dual-meet victories. The team title was Dundee's fifth in the past 10 years.

Dundee was only one of two teams to defeat Bedford, which won the Division I team dual title.

“We handled everyone in the state,” said Dundee Athletic Director Tom Williams. “I think we would have won any division this year.”

Six Viking wrestlers placed in the individual state meet and two, Brandon Jonseck and Andy Salenbien, won individual championships. Jonseck, a senior, went 53-9 en route to winning the 189-pound weight class. Salenbien compiled a 58-4 record as the senior won the title at 160 pounds.

But Jonseck and Salenbien were primarily cogs in a Viking team machine that featured a balanced line up.

Heavyweight Jarred Barnes finished as a state runner-up with a 57-5 record. Barnes, a senior, also broke a school record with 45 pins.

Junior Scott Miller posted an impressive record (55-9) and took third in the 135-pound weight class at state. Sophomore Jerry Salenbien, Andy's cousin, compiled a 51-12 record at 125, in which he took fifth place.

The other Viking who placed at the state individual meet was 215 pound senior Brian Juckette. Despite weighing just 185 pounds, Juckette was bumped up a weight class because “he liked wrestling the fat guys,” Roberts said. Despite the disadvantage, Juckette finished sixth at the state tournament and was 48-14.

“This was a really good group,” Roberts said. “They really got each other up. They wanted each kid to take it to the next level.

“This year I wanted the team title really badly and they did too. I thought I had the kids to do it and I wanted them to be focused on it. When we got to midseason, we really realized this team could do something.”

Those indications actually became clear just two weeks into the season when Dundee won the Bedford Invitational Tournament in which the home team took second. The Vikings had never beaten Bedford in the Mules' home tournament.

Midway through the season, the Vikings won the Monroe County Tournament and once again Bedford took second.

Roberts, who was an assistant under local legend Jim Wittibslager at Dundee for eight years, said the Vikings had defeated Bedford just once in the 1990s despite winning four straight team state championships (1995-98).

The true test came in the last weekend of the season when Dundee hosted the Wittibslager Challenge Tournament. The dual meet event featured six teams that were all ranked in the state polls. Dundee won three dual meets but suffered its only loss of the season before facing Bedford in the finals.

“It was a great dual,” Roberts said. “Both teams wrestled really well.”

Roberts said the key to the Viking's victory was Nick Salenbien's pin at 112 pounds. Salenbien was trailing by two points, before he came back with the fall to give his team an 18-0 lead. But Dundee still led by just two going into the heavyweight match.

“I was pretty confident in our heavyweight [Barnes],” Roberts said. “But I knew it was a Bedford wrestler and for a match to come down on one guy's shoulders is tough for any kid. But our heavyweight went out and did the right thing - he attacked and took it to him.”

Indeed Barnes pinned his foe in 50 seconds to give Dundee a 34-27 win.

“There was a big crowd and it was exciting,” Roberts said. “Everybody's arms went up and everyone was hugging each other.”

The upset served as fuel for the Vikings run through the postseason tournament.

The Michigan postseason format is especially grueling. The wrestlers compete for both the team title and individual titles over the same three-week period.

After winning the Lenawee County Athletic Association league title, Dundee coasted through the district meet where it posted two shutouts (80-0 and 79-0). The Vikings then won convincingly in the regionals with victories of 62-13 and 48-10 to advance to the state meet.

Dundee faced its stiffest opponent in the state quarterfinals in which it edged Springport 34-24. Roberts said freshman Tony White's 4-2 win at 119 was pivotal to the victory.

In the semifinals Dundee exacted some long-standing revenge from Whittemore-Prescott, which had ousted the Vikings from the state tournament in each of the last two years. Whittemore-Prescott went on to win back to back titles in 1999 and 2000.

“Both of those were real close loses,” Roberts said. “We wrestled really well against them this year and ended up winning 41-18. That one felt really good.”

In the finals, Dundee fell behind Carson City-Crystal 6-0 after the first two matches. Then at 119, freshman White again had a huge win and 135-pound Scott Miller recorded an upset pin over Kyle Cashen, who had lost just once all season.

The Vikings then did not lose a match after the 140-weight class and went on to pound Carson City-Crystal 47-13. Jonseck, Andy Salenbien, Juckette, and Barnes all recorded pins in the finals.

All 14 Dundee wrestlers made it out of the district tournament as individuals and 12 went on to state.

“We were so up [from winning the team title] that I think there was a let down,” Williams said. “It's hard to get back up. It's a tough stretch of some high pressure wrestling.”

While Dundee may have fallen short of its individual goals, the Vikings pulled together as a team in a sport that inherently stresses individuality.

“This was a special title,” Williams said. “We're a small school and people always look at how we fare against the big boys. This year we beat Bedford three times and it is a good argument that we had the best team in the state.”

Roberts was a bit more reluctant to adorn his team with that honor. He pointed out that the Division II state champions, Lapeer West, also beat Bedford. “I think we have an argument that we were the best,” Roberts said. “At the very least, we can say we were one of best teams in state.”

First Published April 4, 2001, 6:07 p.m.