Caledonia High School Athletics

Hastings and Caledonia each had two of the top teams Saturday at the Saxons’ annual LH Lamb Invitational at Hastings High School. The Hastings varsity wrestling team, dubbed the “Gold” team for Saturday, had three champs, five runners-up and ten total medalists, and that was just enough for the Saxons to beat out Cale­donia for the team championship by 4.5 points at the 12-team tournament. Hastings also had a “Blue” team place seventh and Caledonia had a “Purple” team place fourth. “I could not be more proud,” Cale­donia head coach Shawn Veitch said. “I talked to our guys, and I think it is a really good testament to where our room is now as a whole. Our varsity guys have gotten better from last year, but they’re still not world beaters. And they are making our JV guys better. That is what I told our varsity. We kind of have to man up a little more and push each other more, because we’re making our JV guys a lot better.” The Caledonia “Gold” team got individual championships from Max Schnurstein at 120 pounds, Escher Reeder at 126, Robert Restau at 138, Cayden Nostrant at 175, Xavier Stewart at 215 and Ky Spencer at 285 – the most individual titles of any team at the meet. The Caledonia “Purple” team’s David Tiers works on top of Hastings’ Reese Hammond during their 190-pound championship match Saturday at Hastings High School during the annual LH Lamb Invitational. Caledonia had a “Gold” team place second at the tournament while the “Purple” team of Scots placed fourth. The Caledonia “Purple” team’s David Tiers works on top of Hastings’ Reese Hammond during their 190-pound championship match Saturday at Hastings High School during the annual LH Lamb Invitational. Caledonia had a “Gold” team place second at the tournament while the “Purple” team of Scots placed fourth. “Max continues to wrestle at a good level. Escher made some good adjust­ments here today at 32. I was happy with that. And Robert … he got beat there twice at Northview and to be honest it broke him a little bit – but in a good way,” Veitch said. “He has practiced so much better on his technique in the last two weeks. That is what can make him go from good to great, when he just doesn’t rely on that God-given athleti­cism and goes with that technique. Great day from him.” Spencer ran his record to 13-0 on the season pinning all three of his foes. He stuck Maple Valley’s Joe Long with a little less than half a minute left in the third period of their 285-pound cham­pionship match. He wasn’t the only Fighting Scot picking up points for pins in the finals. Schnurstein also got a pin late in the third period of his 120-pound champi­onship match as he finally got Monta­bella’s Jordan Row on his shoulders. Schnurstein is undefeated as well on the year moving to 21-0 with his three wins Saturday. Stewart stuck New Lothrop’s Tony Ingersoll in the 215-pound title bout. Nostrant won his championship, sticking the Hastings Gold team’s Donny Smith 2:17 into their 175-pound final. Restau had two quick pins on the day and then earned a technical fall over Hastings Gold’s Isaac Lilley in the 138-pound fi­nal. Reeder scored a technical fall against Caledonia Purple’s Crue Gardner in the 126-pound title bout. Gardner was one of three Caledonia Purple team members to reach the championship round. Owen Rounds was second at 132 pounds and David Tiers won the 190-pound title. Tiers pinned his Caledonia Gold teammate Sean Sorrell in the semifinals and then scored a major decision in the championship round against Hastings Gold’s Reese Hammond. “It was so great to have my David back,” Veitch said of Tiers. “I have been joking with him. He has just been wrestling passive this year, and to have him come out here today and wrestle aggressive like I know he can.” He thought Tiers’day could have been worthy of earning him the Tournament MVP award having gone from an un­seeded guy to a champion. That brick of granite went to Clio170-pounder D’Marion Erlenbeck who improved to 17-0 with his run to a championship through his weight class. Luke Kowatch from the Caledonia Purple team placed third at 215 pounds. The Caledonia Gold team also had Ben Moss second at 150 pounds, Koleson Reeder third at 157 and Caleb VanLaan fourth at 106. The Hastings “Gold” team got in­dividual championships from Hunter Sutfin at 113 pounds, Reyd Zoerman at 133 and Liam Renner at 144. “It’s good to win our home one,” Hast­ings head coach Jason Slaughter said. “We had some good competition this year. I feel like, the past couple years we have blown people out of the water, but it was close this year. Our guys got to kind of see some good competition.” The Saxon Gold team finished the day with 236.5 points ahead of Caledonia Gold 231.0, Pinckney 1098.5, Caledonia Purple 107.5, New Lothrop 102.5, Clio 101.5, Hastings “Blue” 80, Saranac 77, Ionia 73.5, Maple Valley 73.5, Monta­bella 68.5 and Lansing Eastern 61.5. Caledonia was back in action Wednes­day visiting Reeths-Puffer to start the OK Green Conference season and things didn’t go quite how the Scots would have hoped. The Rockets took a 43-20 win. Caledonia got pins from Spencer at 285 pounds and Restau at 138, but the Rockets won ten weight classes. Reeder scored a 5-0 win over Cory Judd in the 132-pound match for Caledo­nia and Nostrant beat Andrew Corradin by technical fall at 175 pounds. The Scots were able to keep from giv­ing up extra points from pins and such for the most part, but didn’t do enough scoring of their own to take down the Rockets.