Maintaining his competitive Arch: Winning title at QND Invitational sends Palmyra wrestler into postseason on high note

QUINCY — Palmyra highly touted wrestler Collin Arch barely broke a sweat Saturday en route to winning the 152-pound class in the 31st annual Quincy Notre Dame Invitational.

Arch, a three-time defending state champion who is ranked No. 1 in his weight class and No. 2 overall in Missouri, pinned all four opponents he faced. The QND tournament was his final tune-up before the postseason.

“This year has just flown by,” said Arch, who now owns a 150-1 career record. “I think I’m pretty much where I need to be at this point, but we have two weeks until districts start and I’ll be working on refining everything.”

Judging by his performance at QND, Arch may not need to refine much. He punctuated his day with a pin of Aden Byal of Chatham Glenwood in 3 minutes, 19 seconds in the finals. That represented almost half the combined time he spent on the mat in his three earlier matches. The first three opponents he faced were pinned in a combined 3 minutes, 20 seconds (1:40, 1:13 and 27 seconds).

“Collin is very dominant,” Palmyra coach Jeremiah Reed said. “His work ethic is his strongest suit, and he does everything the right way. I just hope he takes (this experience) all in.”

Arch (42-1) is a Northern Illinois University commit who suffered his only high school loss earlier this season in the Hallsville (Mo.) Holiday Tournament to Carter McAllister of Rock Bridge 3-2. McAllister is a Mizzou commit. 

Arch is attempting to win his fourth state championship in a fourth different weight class. His first championship as a freshman came at 120, his second as a sophomore at 132 and last year as a junior at 138.

Arch was the only local wrestler to win a title at QND.

Earning second-place finishes were Luke Lawson (30-15) of Palmyra at 106, Evan Carel (23-7) of West Hancock at 138 and Ryan Darnell (27-6) of QND at 195.

Chatham Glenwood won the 18-team event with 227 points, followed by Jacksonville (184.5), Kirkwood (161.5), Illini Bluffs (148.5), St. Joseph-Ogden (147) and Edwardsville (140).

QND was the top finisher among local teams, ending up eighth with 127 points. Central (119) was ninth, Palmyra (61) 10th, Quincy High School (43) 12th, Pittsfield (37.5) 14th, West Hancock (37) 15th and Illini West (4) 18th.

“This is a tough tournament,” QND coach and tournament director Adam Steinkamp said. “We had four (individual) state champs here and 18 teams from all over the (region. It was grueling, and it will be even stronger next year.”

Joining Arch as defending state champs in the field were Paul Ishikawa (145) of Illini Bluffs, Drew Davis (120) of Glenwood and Holden Brazelton (132) of St. Joseph-Ogden. Ishikawa (40-0) and Davis (40-2) won titles Saturday, while Brazelton (42-3) finished third.

Eight other local wrestlers registered top-four finishes.

Third-place finishers were Paul Schenk (113) and Conner Griffin (160) of Central, Ryan Scheuerman (126) of QND, Payton Eddy (170) of QHS and Tucker Cook (182) of Pittsfield.

Taking fourths were Dylan Mowen (120) and Joseph Friday (145) of Central and Bradi Lahr (132) of QND.

Winning the remaining tournament titles were Ethan Hoyt (113) of Macomb, Deshawn Armstrong (126), Keaton Wilhelm (170) and Luca Thies (182) of Jacksonville, Lorenzo Brinkley (285) of Kirkwood, Alex Hamrick (220) and Raymond Maduena (132) of Glenwood and Connor Janssen (160) of Springfield Lanphier.