My body has traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hamilton Wrestling District Champs

On to Regionals! Exilarating and exhausting.

The team won Districts last night in incredibly exciting fashion.

The final round against a very tough team they had only faced once before and lost by several points due to some guys being out and shifted to different weight classes. So they thought they could beat them.

The other team put out some different guys this time as well though so it was a very tough time. Cole beat his guy in the final 10 seconds to get the points for his team even breaking his face mask in the process and finishing without it (he started wearing it due to the broken nose issues).

As you'll see by the final score, it was down to a matter of 2 points. Some key guys did not win as expected, yet some other guys really stepped up in return. The final match had everyone on their feet cheering on the final wrestler. To win the match he needed to either get a Technical win (spread of 15pts) or a Pin. Not an easy task. Yet he rose to the challenge with a pin in the 2nd round. Quite amazing.

Here's some of the local paper play by plays which tell it better.

http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/-4120126585001745334/hamilton-wrestlers-get-pin-in-final-match-to-nip-otsego-for-district-championship/

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/sports/x1025057327/9-and-counting-Hamilton-wins-ninth-straight-team-district-wrestling-title




















Final round

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Wrestling conference finals

Cole and Joey
Go Hawkeyes




Conference finals today for bragging rights.
Whole team did fantastic. There's 14 weight classes and they had 13 guys in the finals(1st-4th), 10 guys going for championships.
4 earned championships.
Hamilton had the Top overall team score winning conference. They wrestle as individuals but earn points toward the team score.
Cole took 2nd place to a very tough but nice opponent, his pal Joey earned 3rd. The whole team really wrestled fantastic. Now on to team and individual districts.
What I truly enjoy seeing is Cole's display of sportsman ship. If a guy wrestles fair and beats you simply because he is a better wrestler than you, no reason you can be friends and aquaintances and nothing to feel bad about. Something I taught him through stickfighing tournaments. Always try to leave a tournament with at least one new friend. You've tested each other through combat and have learned something together about yourselves. No need to still be enemies.
3rd place guy? Not so happy having gone 0-3 against Cole this season. I suppose I can understand his disappointment. Cole said he had really improved from the last time they met so he wanted it bad too. Of course, Cole improved not just a bit too.