Pioneer heavyweight Chris Biggs came to The Palace of Auburn Hills on Thursday, intent on leaving a state champion on Saturday.

After losing his opening round match of the Division 1 individual wrestling state finals, a 6-5 heartbreaker, those dreams were dashed, he still wanted to leave a winner.

He did exactly that on Saturday, defeating Royal Oak’s Mikhail Prince 5-3 for seventh place.

After having his hand raised, he rushed over to coaches Craig and Bill Petoskey and executed the last bear hug of his high school career.

“We talked about a little before the match to go out a winner. I told him it’s important to go out and win this match,” Petoskey said. “

“After that first match, my coaches talked and we just said we had to get over it,” said Biggs, who was pinned in his first match of the medal round by Westland John Glenn’s Dustin Gajowiak.. “Yeah, (the Thursday match) was a close one ,came down to the last couple seconds, but I’ve been through tough times like that both through football and wrestling, so I was well prepared.”

Biggs was among eight all-state Washtenaw County wrestlers to wrestle in Saturday’s medal rounds. Manchester’s Jimmy Hamilton (145), Austin Deacons (119) and Dylan Neff will wrestle in the Division 4 championship matches later tonight. Chelsea’s Dakota Cooley will participate in the 140 pound final in Division 2.

Manchester’s Ryan Abrigo lost a 5-4 heartbreaker early in the day on a last second reversal, but bounced back by beating Hunter Machus of Bronson for fifth place in Division 4 at 119 pounds.

“I wish I would’ve have finished a little better, you gotta wrestle all six minutes I lost a couple matches at the end there,” Abrigo said. “I just want it so much more now.”

Milan’s Matt Schultz had his hand raised at the end of the day, after winning by injury default for seventh place in Division 2 at 189 pounds. It was Schultz’s second victory by injury default of the tournament.

“I wish I could have gotten to wrestle that last one, especially here at states,” said Schultz, who lost his first match of the day to Pat McGauley of Trenton 4-3 “I’ll be back though, next year.”

Schultz was one of three juniors to place for Milan. Tim Sims took sixth at 145 pounds and R.J. Gaskill was at eighth at 160.

Gaskill lost his two matches of the day, the first to Holly’s Shawn Scott, 13-2, and by the identical score to Kevin Beazley of Farmington Hills Harrison in the seventh-place match.

Sims came back from down 5-2 and scored a pin in his first match of the day against Jason VanWasshenova of New Boston Huron. He lost to Nick Humes of Stevensville Lakeshore, 9-2, and Garrett Smith of Allegan, by pin.

“It felt great, it being my first year qualifying, doing a what a lot of kids can’t do,” Sims said.

After earning all-state honors Friday, Ypsilanti’s Alex Lillie dropped both of his medal round matches Saturday, the last a 1-0 heartbreaker to Noel Guevara of Dearborn Heights Annapolis.

“It’s almost like a dream come true,” Lillie said. “It would have been nice to place a little higher but the way I look at it, it culminates right her. I’m on the podium. That’s all that matters to me.”

Chelsea’s Travis Ostrowski (189) and Milan’s Sean Domas (215) both started the day with wins, but ended with losses to take fourth place in their Division 2 weight classes. Domas beat Kyle Spear of Stevenson Lakeshore 5-3 before falling to Dave Giese of Marshall 2-0.

Ostrowski won two early on, the first 9-4 over Alex Bishop of Corrunna, then 4-3 over Mat Henry of Owosso. He lost 2-0 to Nick Gattes of Madison Heights Lamphere.

He left the mat with a big smile on his face, even as coach Kerry Kargel gave him a hard time for stopping with about two seconds remaining.

“I don’t know what he was saying, I can’t hear anything out there,” Ostrowski said with a laugh. “I wanted to place top five when I was coming in, third would have been nice, but I did what I came to do.”

-- Bob Gross contributed to this article

AnnArbor.com's Pete Cunningham and Bob Gross will continue to provide coverage of the MHSAA individual wrestling state finals. Check back later for finals results.