Zeeland East Wrestling competed in the Ottawa County Championship Tournament this weekend hosted this year by Zeeland West.  East finished in 4th place over all behind Champion Hudsonville, runner up Allendale, and third place Holland.  East crowned three (3) champions:  freshman JJ Ledford at 113,  junior Gavin Drenten at 138, and senior Parker Williams at 285.  Gabe Amid was the runner up at 190 while Ben DeLost was in 3rd at 150 and Anders Tibbs finished in 4th at 132.  

JJ Ledford began the day in third seed defeating Hayden Lucas of Grand Haven by pin in 3:08.  JJ then squared off against Brady Steffes of Coopersville the number 2 seed in the semi-finals.  Brady was the Ottawa County Runner up last year and last year regional qualifier for Coopersville.  JJ defeated Brady 10-2 to advance to the finals again Jaxon Ramos of Allendale. Jaxon was the returning Ottawa County Champion and returning State Qualifier.  JJ defeated Jaxon 6-3 to take the 2023 Ottawa County title.  

Gavin Drenten entered the day as the number 1 seed and returning Ottawa County Champion and proved it during the day.  Gavin began the morning pinning Cohen Rollenhagen of Allendale in 1:47.  In the semi-finals Gavin defeated Wyatt Jarka of Coopersville by technical fall and final score of 20-2).  In the finals Gavin "super-teched" (pinning the opponent while having enough points for a technical fall) Anthony Jaramillo of West Ottawa in the start of the second period to secure his second consecutive County Championship.

Parker Williams started the day as a second seed.  Based on the number of wrestlers at 285 the bracket was a round-robin meaning that Parker got to wrestle every entry in the bracket.  Parker made quick work of each and every competitor by pinning them in the first period to reach the finals.  In his march to the finals Parker pinned Jay Kachur of Hudsonville in 37 seconds, Alessand Fillmore of Holland in 1:02, Ari Bismark of Spring Lake in 1:51, and Louie Vargo of Grand Haven in 30 seconds.  In the finals Parker faced Jenison's Anton Barynas a returning D1 State Qualifier.  After the first period Parker was already up 5-0 and then pinned Anton less than 30 seconds in to the second period to claim his County Championship.

East wrestling was also successful on Friday nigh at the Ottawa County JV Championships crowning four (4) JV Champions - Xavier Pheuk, Corbin Lepior Ruiz, Terrence Vilayseng, and Adrean Goldsworthy.  

East takes to the mats again this Wednesday at Hudsonville Unity Christrian in conference action against Holland.