nother tournament

Another saturday tournament down.
12+ hours makes for a long day, specially when it's 9-5 in a bleacher.
Cole had yet another great day, going undeafeated again.
That's three undefeated tournaments out of four in January, his only loss to a Division 1 ranked team.
So the current record of wins-losses is 31-7, 21-1 in January.
One more Quad on Wednesday and then it's conference action next Saturday for which he should be seeded in first place.
Great to see him having such a great senior season.

nice article from last Saturday too.

http://allegannews.com/articles/2011/01/27/sports/4.txt

HOPKINS—Records are made to be broken and on Saturday, Jan. 22, Jake Arndt of Hopkins set a school record that he hopes is broken.

“My hope and desire is for someone else to break my record,” said the modest Arndt, who set the mark for most career wins in Hopkins. “That’s what records are all about.”

Arndt, who wrestled at 152 and 160 pounds, would like to see the Vikings’ wrestling program make some noise at the state level.

“We’re getting better and better,” Arndt said. “I would love to see wrestling become an elite program at our school like football.”

The Vikings, who finished a close second to Hamilton at their own invitational, are making great strides. “They’ve really gotten a lot better,” said veteran Hawkeyes’ coach Gregg Stoel. “(Hopkins coach) Joel (Eding) has done a great job with that program. We feel fortunate to get out of here with a win.”

Hamilton went 5-0 at the daylong tournament.


The Hawkeyes opened the invite with a 69-6 shellacking of Whitehall. They followed that with a 35-24 win over Edwardsburg, a 63-14 pasting of East Kentwood’s B team and a 40-28 victory over Three Rivers.

The Hawkeyes’ toughest match was a 36-30 decision over the Vikings in round 3.

“I thought we might get them,” Eding said. “We had a great shot.”

Eding was extra fired up for the bout.

“Joel really wanted it,” said his wife, Denise. “He didn’t eat when he left home this morning.”

Eding could almost taste his first triumph against his alma mater.



“This was the closest we’ve come to beating these guys,” Eding said. “A match here or there could have been the difference.”

Another factor might have been the coin toss.

“Winning the coin toss is always very important,” Stoel said. “For me it usually comes down to a match against a certain kid. They got what they wanted when they put up (Elijah) Mack against Cole VanHarn (in the final match).”

Hopkins laid all of its marbles on the floor when they sent out the muscular Mack against the equally well-built VanHarn at 171 pounds. VanHarn ended up winning arguably the day’s most exciting match with so much at stake, 3-1.“That was a great match,” Eding said. “It was a match that could have gone either way.”

This was the fifth time this season that VanHarn, who is ranked 10th in the state, has won a match in the last five seconds.

“I would much rather get it over as quickly as possible,” VanHarn said. “Winning at the end like that is not something I plan on.”Also going 5-0 on the day for the Hawkeyes besides VanHarn were Collin Welcher (103 pounds), Brandt Welcher (130) and Joey Cullen (152).



“We knew this would be a tough tournament,” Stoel said. “We wrestled very well against some very good teams.”

Hopkins’ four team wins came over Three Rivers (48-21), Whitehall (65-18), Edwardsburg (41-31) and East Kentwood’s B unit (66-14).

“This was a fun day,” Arndt said. “It was fun to wrestle five matches.”

Several teams in the past have voided against Arndt, who raised his season record to a perfect 32-0. He has now won 141 career matches and broke Kinion Mack’s previous school mark of 137.

“I’m happy for Jake,” said the classy Mack, working at one of the tables. “He’s a good wrestler, who has good techniques.”

Stoel also had special words for Arndt.

“He’s a very solid wrestler,” Stoel said. “It’s easy to see he has worked hard to get to where he’s at.”

Arndt has another big goal in mind for himself and for the Vikings before the season comes to a close.

“I’d really like to see us win district,” Arndt said. “I believe we have the team to do it.”

Hopkins will host districts Thursday, Feb. 10.

“Ironically, Otsego, the team we last defeated for our lone district championship, is in our district along with Fennville,” Eding said.

Also finishing with 5-0 unbeaten marks for Hopkins along with Arndt were Kyle Cooper (215), Jimmy Renberg (145) and Paul Weber (119-125).