Tide seniors named Wrestlers of the Year
Toolbox
By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff - Published: March 24, 2009
Together they have over 250 career wins with just 103 losses and 11 years of experience on the wrestling mat.
They both earned their 100th wins this winter and were integral parts of their team's successful season, culminating in the closest any team has come to powerhouse Mount Anthony in the last 18 years.
Spaulding's Kyle Edmunds (119 pounds) and Reuben Stone (189 pounds) caught the eye and the respect of coaches not only around the state, but also in their out-of-state performances against some of the best in New England. Selecting the Crimson Tide seniors as The 2008-2009 Times Argus Wrestlers of the Year was a no-brainer.
"He's a good athlete and a better kid," Spaulding coach Mick Kerin said of Stone, who went 44-6 this season and 138-41 overall in his four-year Crimson Tide career. "His confidence level is just so high, and I think David called him fearless the other night at our banquet. He has wrestled bigger, stronger kids and he didn't care. He wrestled Robert Hamlin, the stud from Mount Mansfield, three times last year and he couldn't have cared less. He went out there and did his best, and that's the way it goes. He's a poster child for coming out late."
Stone, who also plays baseball at Spaulding, joined the wrestling team as a freshman. His first year he compiled a 6-21 record, went 27-18 the next year and 37-17 the year after.
"Two of his losses this year were to out-of-state kids," Spaulding coach David Fournier said. "The only one in-state he ended up beating three times after that at Essex, here and at the state finals, when it counted the most."
"Everything we've ever told him to do, he does," Kerin said. "All of his coaches tell us that. His baseball coaches love him."
Those coaches have all supported Stone's wrestling career.
"It tells you what kind of kid he is when grown men come to watch someone else's kid participate in a sport," Fournier added.
Edmunds – who started wrestling in the sixth grade, went 40-8 this year and has a 138-41 career record – never had a losing season at Spaulding. He was the only current senior to have a winning record (25-11) as a freshman.
"He qualified for New England's all four years, was in the state finals three years in a row, was a state champion this year and was fifth in the New England's," Fournier said. "He only lost to one Vermont kid and that was at our first event in December."
Edmunds' 138 wins puts him at fifth on the all-time win list at Spaulding.
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