Barkby voted Athlete of the Week
STURGIS — Lola Barkby of Sturgis achieved a state championship earlier this month at Ford Field.
It came on the wrestling mats for the MHSAA at 120 pounds. With the state championship, Barkby became the first female wrestler at Sturgis High School to achieve the feat. She's also the first individual state wrestling champion for the Trojans since Dan Dillon won at 98 pounds back in 1979.
An impressive accomplishment.
Maybe less impressive was Barkby winning the most recent Athlete of the Week award for the Journal.
Barkby edged Constantine's Bennett VandenBerg in the voting for the honor. She earned just under 57 percent of all the votes cast for the award while VandenBerg garnered just under 36 percent.
VandenBerg's state title for Constantine was the school's first since Kevin Watkins won the 152-pound weight class back in 2000.
Each of the seven wrestlers who qualified for the state championship match in their respective weight classes — Bronson's Gabe Erwin (150) and Layne Knisely (157), White Pigeon's Caleb Lane (175) and Chaz Underwood (285) and Marcellus' Gabriella Allen — plus the Bronson girl's bowling team which finished second overall, were up for the award.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at watson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Barkby voted Athlete of the Week
