By Jeff Yoder
For the second straight year, Mid-Prairie honored the memory of a former Golden Hawk wrestler at the Colton Allen Memorial tournament.
And for the first time, they did it with a championship.
“It felt amazing, I think everyone was screaming,” said Cael Garvey, who earlier stood on top of the podium after a first-place finish at 195 pounds.
“It means everything. It’s an amazing feeling to be up there for my friend and for my school.”
Josh Wallington also finished first at 220 pounds as Mid-Prairie edged Alburnett for the title with 104 points to 103.5.
“Last year we got second place in this tournament and this year to win it – It’s pretty exciting,” Mid-Prairie coach Justin Garvey said.
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The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk wrestling team is back on the mat in Wellman Saturday when they host the annual Colton Allen Memorial Tournament. Mid-Prairie owns a 3-5 duel record this season and were last in action Thursday when they dropped a pair of River Valley Conference contests to Monticello and Iowa City Regina. On the Thursday night, the Hawks were led by heavyweight Gannon Callahan who was 2-0 with a pair of falls recorded. The Golden Hawks finished as team runners-up at their own tournament a season ago.
While the duels didn’t go the way the Golden Hawks planned, head coach Justin Garvey spoke on Thursday night about what his team needs to do to rebound this weekend. “I think we need to focus a little bit more. The home atmosphere on Thursday didn’t play to our favor. Our guys were too laid back. They thought that we were just going to come in here and get a couple of wins. Friday was a focused practice and then on Saturday we come back in here for business.”