Caledonia High School Athletics

Thrilling late wins for Scots as they take three titles at Kent Co. tourney. Tied 0-0 with 2025 state medalist Ayden Ringer, a senior from Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Caledonia sophomore Max Schnurstein took what he could get to get a 3-0 sudden victory in overtime Saturday. Ringer, who was fifth in Division 3’s 106-pound weight class, shot in on Schnurstein in their 120-pound semifi­nal match at the Kent County Classic hosted by East Kentwood High School. Schnurstein sprawled, got a cross face in and worked his way around to hook an ankle for a take down that gave him a 3-0 victory. Schnurstein went on to earn a 4-3 win over Comstock Park’s Peyton Farrell in the championship match to finish as one of three Caledonia champions on the day. He was joined at the top of the medal stand by 285-pounder Ky Spencer and 175-pounder Cayden Nostrant. The Caledonia team was fourth over­all in a field of 24 teams from around Kent County. “I could not be more proud of Max how he is mentally,” Caledonia head coach Shawn Veitch said. “Mentally he has gotten so much stronger in the past year. A big piece I have been talking to him about is where your mind goes your body will follow. You have to mentally do it.” “The team went nuts for him too,” Veitch said of the semifinal win. The CHS coach was pretty pleased with the enthusiasm of his team through­out the day. “Sometimes at big individual tourna­ments you can see that drift,” Veitch said. “You’re not with the team as much , it’s all individual, the day is going long. I was so pleased with our team continu­ity. They stayed together all day. The officials probably hated us because they had to keep telling us only two in the corner. That to me is a blessing. We’re gelling as a team and wrestling more for our team than ourselves.” There was a lot to cheer about. Nostrant opened with a pin, scored a technical fall against Thornapple Kellogg’s Camden Peter in the quarterfinals, outscored Comstock Park’s Deegan Pike 10-3 in the semi’s and then beat out Kent City’s Jackson Carr 12-5 in the cham­pionship match at 175. Veitch best described Nostrant’s day as “dominant.” “He is just on a different level right now,” Veitch said. Spencer won at 285 pounds by outscoring Rockford’sAlex Stewart 4-3 in the championship match after notching three pins to open the day. That final was about as exciting as Schnurst­ein’s semifinal win. Veitch gave Spencer some freedom to choose his position at the start of the second period tied 0-0 with Stewart. Spencer chose the top position, where the coach would certainly lean to his wrestler opening that period in the bottom position to get the first point of the match with an escape. Stewart got that escape after about a minute on the bottom. Stalling calls flew both ways through the rest of the second period and the start of the third period. Stewart chose the bottom position to start that third period. Eventually a stalling call on Stewart tied the match at 1-1 and then another the other way put Stewart back up 2-1. The two went out of bounds with nine seconds to go and Stewart still up one. Spencer shot in on the restart and then completed a double-leg take down for the win as time ran out. The Scots’ Escher Reeder was the runner-up at 1267 pounds. The Caledonia team also had Xavier Stewart at 215 pounds and Robert Restau at 144 place third. Ben Moss at 150 pounds and Koleson Reeder at 157 both finished fifth at their weight class. Veitch said he took very different approaches with Moss and Reeder as they tried to work their way through the consolation bracket after early losses. He said he knew Moss was right on the edge of making great things happen. “He just had to find his rhythm,” said the Caledonia coach. With Reeder, it was a little more aggres­sive approach. “I told him, you are a junior. You’re no longer just going out there to wrestle. We need you to go out there and to win. He responded extremely well,” Veitch said. “He just took it to every kid.” Really, the CHS head coach was pleased with all those medalists. Rockford won the day’s team champi­onship with 211.5 points. Byron Center was second with 198 ahead of Kent City 185.5, Caledonia 182.5, Cedar Springs 156.5, Thornapple Kellogg 114.5, Forest Hills Northern 108, Kenowa Hills 97, Northview 84 and Sparta 83.5 in the top ten.