SL outlasts Fremont to claim own tourney

Sunday, January 06, 2008

FROM LOCAL REPORTS

The depth of Spring Lake's wrestling lineup keeps putting the Lakers in position to win tournaments.

On Saturday, the Lakers capitalized on their depth again to capture their own invitational.

All 14 Spring Lake wrestlers earned points -- including three champions and four runner-ups -- as they won the Laker Invitational by 26 points over second-place Fremont.

The Packers crowned six individual champions, but it wasn't enough to prevent Spring Lake from winning its second tourney of the season to go along with two runner-up finishes.

"Fremont wrestled very well and made it close after we had a pretty good lead going into the finals," said Spring Lake coach Tom Koops, whose squad is 19-5 in duals this season. "Getting at least one win and points from everybody was definitely a key for us."

Pat McKay led the way for the Lakers. The sophomore earned his first ever tourney title at 103 pounds with a pin of Montague's Kyle Fahrlander. Nick Modak and Nick Miller also won titles for the Lakers at 160 and 189 pounds respectively.

Mike Dunbar, Brad Jones, Jordan Graham, Isaac Garza, Tim Carpenter and Kyle Sams earned wins for the Packers, who captured six of seven finals matches.

Montague, Spring Lake's B team and Newaygo took fifth, sixth and seventh in the 8-team field. Montague's Dan Howard won the 215-pound class.

New Lothrop Hall of Fame Tournament -- Daniel Yates became the first Panther to win two tournament MVP awards in the same season as he led Hesperia to the title in its first-ever appearance in a New Lothrop tourney. The Panthers earned five individual titles to outdistance Lowell 233-171 in the prestigious 17-team field, which included Whitehall. The Vikings amassed 95 points to finish 8th. Collin Zeerip won at 103 pounds, Malcom Martin captured the 135-pound title, Brandon Zeerip pinned his opponent in the 145-pound final and Rudy Spaulding won the 285-pound title for the top-ranked Panthers. Jordan Bosma and Jake Whelan finished runner-up for Hesperia in their respective weight classes. Whitehall's Anthonly Varela lost to Martin in the finals.

Allendale Invitational -- At Allendale, Reeths-Puffer finished with three champions at the individual wrestling event. Derek Vanderwall (103 pounds) finished 3-0 on the day for a title, Matt Fetterley (171) was 4-0 and Mike Connell (189) finished 3-0. Brody Berson lost in the finals at 119-pounds, finishing the day 2-1. The Rockets finished fifth in the 16-team tournament.

Spring Lake Invitational -- At Spring Lake, the Lakers won the eight-team tourney title with 200 points. Fremont (174) was second, Montague was fifth, Spring Lake's B team was sixth and Newaygo was seventh. Winning titles for the Lakers were Pat McKay (103), Nick Modak (160) and Nick Miller (189). Fremont's Mike Dunbar (112), Brad Jones (119), Jordan Graham (125), Issac Garza (135), Tim Carpenter (140) and Kyle Sams (285) all placed first as did Montague's Dan Howard (215).

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