Conference meet with SF goes down to the wire

RUMBLE ON THE RED
The Wild had two placewinners in the Rumble on the Red, a tournament held in Fargo, North Dakota on December 27 and 28. That doesn’t sound very impressive until you consider the fact that 69 teams from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota participated in the tournament, including Apple Valley, West Fargo and Scott West. Dylan Connell (120) placed fifth with a 4-2 record and Mark Sontag (160) went 4-3 and finished in eighth place. As a team, the Wildcats finished tied for 32nd with Becker. Cambridge-Isanti finished fourth for the highest finish by a Mississippi 8 Conference team.

“That’s the biggest tourney we’ll wrestle in this season,” said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. “Some of the brackets were 64-man brackets. It was a good tourney as far as the high level of competition. A lot of our wrestlers were able to win a match or two as they found themselves matched up against good, tough competition. Dylan lost to a couple of three time state champions and Mark had to beat a couple of pretty good kids in the wrestlebacks to get to the placing rounds.” Connell pinned Justin Schultz of Waconia and Mason Hall of St. Francis in his first two matches and won his quarterfinal match by an 8-3 decision over Diondre Lodge of Rosemount. In the semifinals, Connell lost by a 9-2 decision to Cameron Sykora of Border West, a three time state champion. In the consolation semifinals, Connell lost 2-0 to another three time state champion, Taylor Venz of Farmington. Connell came back in the fifth place match to beat Andy Andress of White Bear Lake by major decision, 14-2.

Sontag opened the tourney with a first period pin over Lucas Sherburne of St. Francis. He was pinned by Lucas Westrich of Lakeville North in the first period in the next round and dropped into the consolation bracket. Sontag won three straight matches by decision in the consolation bracket: 6-2 over Jake Rudeen of Farmington, 9-4 over Mason Stevenson of Kenyon Wanamingo and 3-2 over Davionte Young of Apple Valley. He lost a 3-2 decision to Casey Klapprodt of Rapid City Stevens. In the seventh place match, Sontag lost 6-2 to Brayden Kuntz of South Border. Aaron Sistrunk (126) went 2-2 at the tourney, but did not place. Kyle Schoenecker won three of his five matches but Schoenecker did not place, either.

St. Francis 37, Chisago Lakes 30
In their dual meet against conference opponent St. Francis, the Wildcats led 30-25 after Adam Klick pinned Blake Nordin of St. Francis last in the third period. But Bill Mechelke (220) and Adam Klein (285) were pinned in their matches, sending the Wildcats down to a 37-30 defeat. The meet took place last Thursday, January 2 at Chisago Lakes.

Other individual winners in the match were Teddy Pierce (113), by decision; Dylan Connell (126) by major decision; Kyle Schoenecker (138) by pin; Joe Olinger (152) by decision; Mark Sontag (160) by major decision; and Joe Virga (170) by major decision. Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon said “I actually was pretty happy with the way the boys wrestled. That dual was in reach. Om paper, it looked like St. Francis had the upper hand. We had some guys fight hard to keep us close and give us a chance to win. Adam Klick had a big pin at 195 to give us a chance.”

Individual Results vs. St. Francis 113: Teddy Pierce, CL, dec. Daniel Worthington, SF, 6-4. 126: Dylan Connell, CL, maj. dec. Andrew Wasche, SF, 8-0. 138: Kyle Schoenecker, CL, pinned Tyler Dahlstrom, SF, 1:16. 152: Joe Olinger, CL, dec. Tony Struntz, SF, 7-3. 160: Mark Sontag, CL, maj. dec. Tim Wetenkamp, SF, 16-3. 170: Joe Virga, CL, maj. dec. Anthony Norman, SF, 18-4. 195: Adam Klick, CL, pinned Blaine Nordin, SF, 5:21.

Hibbing Duals
The Wildcats finished in third place in last weekend’s Hibbing Duals. Individually, two Wildcat wrestlers were undefeated in four matches: Dylan Connell (126) and Joe Virga (170, 182). The Wildcats opened the tournament with an easy 64-6 win over the Duals All Stars. The Duals All Stars were a team put together from JV wrestlers from other teams in the tournament after a varsity team dropped out late. Against Princeton, the Wildcats led 27-16 after Joe Virga’s win by technical fall at 170, but were pinned in the last four matches and lost 40-27. Mound Westonka led the Wildcats 31-29 after the 195 pound match.

But Adam Klick (220) and Jacob Klein (285) both pinned their opponents to give the Wildcats a 41-31 victory. And against Centennial in the true third place match, three straight wins by Mark Sontag (170), Joe Virga (182) and Adam Klick (195) gave the Wildcats a 26-22 lead. But the Wildcats lost the lost two matches by pins to fall 34-26 to Centennial. “I saw some signs of improvement at Hibbing,” said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. “But we still had some issues as far as bringing the whole team together. We especially didn’t get the job done against Princeton. But we will see them again this week with a chance to get them back. Against Mound Westonka I was extremely happy with our performance. They are pretty tough in the lighter weights and Teddy Pierce and Aaron Sistrunk came up with big pins. And there was a path to victory against Centennial and it was just a matter of getting it done. You can’t let them off the hook like that when you’ve got them lined up for the win.” Joe Virga is still undefeated so far this season. The third-ranked Virga, who’s still not at a hundred percent after returning from a knee injury, beat fourth-ranked Billy Clay of Princeton 3-2 in triple overtime. “It’s good to see Joe come back after three weeks off the mat,” said Frederixon. “He was able to jump right back on the mat and go.

Joe Olinger missed last year with a knee injury and is doing a really nice job this year at 152. He’s wrestling really solid, winning the matches he should and not making silly mistakes. He’s taking full advantage of his opportunity and I’m really happy for him. Adam Klick is doing a nice job as a freshman at 195. He was 4-1 over the weekend between St. Francis and the Hibbing tournament, which is pretty good for a young guy, especially at the upper weights.”

The Wildcats will host Princeton tonight at 7 p.m. at Chisago Lakes High School. This Saturday, they will wrestle in a nine team tournament hosted by St. Croix Lutheran starting at 9 a.m.