Arbegast upends defending state champion to earn 170 finals berth

By: 
Kristi Nixon

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DES MOINES -- Jarel Arbegast went for broke and it paid off.
The West Fork senior gained a last-second takedown of 2016 state champion Tanner Sloan of Alburnett to earn the 170-pound final Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
Through all of the hard work, battling injuries and sitting out of tournaments when all he wanted to do was wrestle, the Warhawk is finally seeing it pay off and he started to believe.
"It's just a dream come true," Jarel Arbegast said. "I knew I had short time and had to give it all I had.
"The defending champ. That's insane."
Arbegast got the opening takedown and it was a battle the rest of the way.
"It's the best feeling in the world," Jarel said. "We've worked for this since kindergarten. We've been looking for this for years, I can't believe it's finally here.
"This year (I started to believe). Being healthy, coming out hard, beating tough kids dominantly. As soon as I got those first two, I knew it was coming. I knew it."
Jared Arbegast, his coach and father, won't deny that he switched from coach to dad in the final moments, jumping all over the mat and yelling, 'two!' as he got the two-point takedown that secured the 10-8 semifinal.
"I went into Dad mode, in about five seconds to go when I knew he was going to get two and it's amazing, I just can't," coach Arbegast said. "I'm speechless.
"You probably saw the raw emotion there, I was so jacked up and it's unbelievable. It's hard to do that fine line anymore nowadays between coach and dad and I tell you what...I can't even speak right now. It's awesome."
A month ago, there was some doubt as to Arbegast's future when, on top of his hip problems he has battled all along, he had a scare with a knee injury. One of his losses came on the heels of the knee tweak at home.
"That was one of the scariest moments as you know," Jarel said. "I tried to wrestle the night it happened and it didn't go very well. Obviously, that wasn't the real me out there. It started feeling pretty good, I got therapy for it. The more I wrestled, the more confident I felt. Even with the hips, I knew I had to fight through it and get through it. Obviously, it was enough."
Jarel said he didn't even know which way to turn after the clock went off.
"I didn't even know what was going on," Jarel said. "I looked up, the crowd is cheering, all my family...it was just amazing."
Coach Arbegast had his doubts after that January night, too.
"I didn't know what the knee was going to do, with the hips, we've been battling the hips for years," coach Arbegast said. "It was like, 'ah, now what are we going to do?' He was feeling good, and he was like, 'we're not going to worry about that.' He puts the knee brace on and gets after it, that's all it is."
And coach Arbegast said he kept the Saturday night suit in the school's Suburban, and will have to bring it out for the final, a first for the coach and school.
Arbegast faces Taylan Entriken of Hudson, who is 47-1. But the West Fork wrestler didn't want to think about that just yet.
"I'll think about (the championship match) later," Jarel said. "Right now, I just want to go hug my mom."

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