Mark Hall wins 2016 Junior Hodge Trophy

NEWTON, Iowa — Mark Hall, who became the first prep wrestler to win six high school state championships this past winter for Apple Valley High School in Minnesota, has been named the winner of the 2016 WIN Magazine Junior Hodge Trophy as the nation’s most dominant high school wrestler.

Mark Hall, the first to win six Minnesota state titles, competed in the Beat The Streets event in May before qualifying for his second Junior World Team in freestyle.

The Junior Hodge Trophy is named after Dan Hodge, the former three-time NCAA champion (1955-57) from the University of Oklahoma. The award is co-presented annually by WIN and the AAU.

Hall is a native of Davison, Mich., who followed his father to Apple Valley High School in the Minnesota community located 20 miles south of Minneapolis. Hall won his first state championship in 2011 as a seventh grader as a 130-pounder and ended his career with the 170-pound championship this past winter. Hall compiled a 278-5 record at Apple Valley, where he won 171 straight victories.

Hall also excelled in freestyle and spent his summers at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Hall, a 2014 World Cadet champion, recently made his second Junior World Team on April 30, just a couple days removed from winning an exhibition match against an Iranian at the annual Beat The Streets event in New York City’s Times Square.

With all Hall’s travels the past six years, he said it was important to end his career at Apple Valley High School.

“I felt like I had to finish the job,” said Hall, who was also part of six state championship teams at Apple Valley. “After winning a fifth individual state title, my high school career would not have been as special to me if I did not finish the job.

“I did a lot of magical things throughout my high school career, but it was important to finish it with my team and build up my family even more.

“Just being able to experience my senior year was important. Wrestling isn’t the only important thing in my life. I value friendship. I valued going to homecoming and things like going to other high school sporting events.”

Hall, who graduated with a 3.75 grade point average, will also spend the summer preparing to wrestle at Penn State this upcoming year.

A more detailed story of this announcement can be found in the latest issue of WIN, which was printed June 1. To subscribe to WIN, call 888-303-0606 or go to https://subscribe.win-magazine.com.

All-Time Junior Hodge Trophy Winners