Port Native Wins U.S. Open Wrestling Championship

Though he's had several tours with the marines overseas, Port Washington native David Arendt doesn't let that stop him from succeeding back home.

Arendt took first place in the Greco-Roman 264.5 lb division at the ASICS U.S. Open wrestling championship in Las Vegas, held April 17-20. Arendt won the first and second periods 2-0 in each of the first two matches. In the last, against Erik Nye representing the U.S. Army, he won the first period, lost the second and scored a pin in the third.

Arendt will participate in the World Trials in June in Oklahoma. World championships are held in September in Budapest, Hungary.

"I love the opporuntiy that I can come and do this ... I like that it shows that, the people serving overseas a lot of those guys over there, they just don't have the opportunity to do this every day," Arendt said in a YouTube video posted by USAWrestling2008. "I do it for those guys, I do it so they have someone to look at and be like, 'he's been here too, and he still comes back and he can still succeed on the mat.'"

This isn't the first time Arendt has had success on the mat. Port Washington High School Principal Eric Burke remembers Arendt from his high school days, and said the man offers "quite a story."

"David wrestled for me in high school and won the state championship his senior season," Burke said. "He is quite a story — he joined the Marines after high school and was selected to be a member of the elite Body Bearer group at Arlington.  He later tried out and made the Marines wrestling team and has wrestled well both nationally and internationally. David has also had at least three tours in Afghanistan."

Though Arendt took home a first place over the weekend, he says there's a long road ahead to future success.

"I've only been back on the mat for about 6 months," he said in the YouTube video. "I haven't been healthy for really more than a month at a time, so ... I got a lot of work to do before trials."