KENTWOOD – The district tournament was a success both on the team level and on the individual level for the East Kentwood wrestling team.
As a team, East Kentwood won the Division 1 team district that it hosted. In the individual Division 1 district at Grand Haven, East Kentwood finished the day with seven regional qualifiers including a pair of champions.
East Kentwood flexed plenty of muscle at the 112-pound weight class, that was where junior Rayvon Perkins won the district title and classmate Bao Phan placed third. Perkins recorded three pins as he upped his record to 33-4 on the season. Phan went 4-1 on the day and improved his record to 26-13 for the year.
“It’s tough to get two wrestlers through in the same weight class,” East Kentwood coach Ben DeMaagd said.
Zsigmond Squires, the lone senior among the Kentwood placers, captured the 160-pound title. Squires recorded three falls on the day as he improved to 21-3 for the year.
“I was personally blown away by the way Zsigmond wrestled,” DeMaagd said. “He came in as the number six seed, so he had to beat the number three and number two seeds and beat the number one seed in the finals. He has been on fire and pinned his way through the district. He is one of those kids who can beat anybody when he’s on.”
Kentwood junior Will Heffron also reached the finals and placed second at 135 pounds. Placing third for the Falcons were juniors Marcus Hurst (125 pounds), Kionte Blakely (152) and Jacob Yingling (171).
“I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made this year,” DeMaagd said. “We doubled the number of regional qualifiers that we had last year and to do that in one year is pretty exciting. I credit our improvement to the tough schools we wrestle against in the OK Red Conference. Week in and week out we get tested and that is why we were able to get seven guys into the regional.”
