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The Viking wrestling team travelled to Zimmerman last Friday for a Mississippi 8 triangular.  

They were crushed by Cambridge-Isanti 70-3, but beat the host team, Zimmerman, 40-33.  Evan Pommier (152), who is 15-0 since returning from an injury odyssey of two-plus years, decisioned Maverick Henderson of Cambridge-Isanti 8-2 to keep the Vikings from getting shut out by Cambridge.  In the match against Zimmerman, with the Vikings trailing 24-6, four Vikings in a row – Aiden Schwarz (139), Ethan Kester (145), Parker Larson (152) and Pommier (160) – pinned their opponents before Parker Deniger (172) won by a 14-2 major decision, and the Vikings led 34-24.  Leonardo Santos  (189) was decisioned 5-2 and Aayden Anderson was pinned at 215 to cut the Viking lead to 34-33.  But Zimmerman didn’t have anyone to face Karson Gariepy at 285, giving the Vikings six points and a 40-33 win.

St. Croix Falls Wrestling Classic

Undefeated Evan Pommier continued to make up for lost time, winning the 150-pound class at the always-tough St. Croix Falls wrestling classic last Saturday in St. Croix Falls, Wisc.  As a team, the Vikings finished 13th out of 21 teams.  Only two other Vikings placed:  Jack Baker (113) and Parker Larson (144) both came in seventh place.

Pommier opened the tournament with a 16-0 technical fall over Robert Davidson of Princeton at 4:17.  In a contentious quarterfinal match, Pommier got two takedowns in the first period against Alex Hoff of St. Croix Falls to lead 4-1 at the end of one.  Hoff started on the bottom in the second period and got a reversal at 2:29 to cut Pommier’s lead to 4-3.  But just 15 seconds later, Hoff was assessed a penalty point.  Pommier escaped at 3:36 and followed with a takedown late in the period and led 8-2 after two periods.  Pommier started on the bottom in the third period.  Pommier received a stalling warning at 4:28 and was assessed a stalling point at 4:56, cutting his lead to 8-4.  But Pommier executed a reversal at 5:50 and pinned Hoff at 5:57 for the win.

In the semifinal match against Payton Herbst of Totino Grace, Pommier had a takedown at 1:20 to go up 2-0.  Pommier chose bottom in the second period and escaped at 3:43 to increase his lead to 3-0.  Herbst chose neutral in the third period.  With 36 seconds left in the match, Pommier was given a stalling warning.  With 13 seconds left, he was assessed a stalling point to cut his lead to 3-1.  The referee assessed Pommier another stalling point with five seconds left in the match to make the score 3-2, but Pommier avoided any more trouble for the last five seconds and came away with the win.  And Pommier was awarded the championship when Nolan Thomley of Prescott had to forfeit the championship match due to a medical issue.

Wrestling Whangdoodles

The Vikings will travel to Spectrum Middle School in Elk River tonight for a quadrangular with Spectrum, Columbia Heights and Ogilvie starting at 5 p.m.  Tomorrow night, the Vikings will host an eight-team invitational starting at 5 p.m. at North Branch High School.  And next Wednesday, January 31 they will wrestle Princeton and Chisago Lakes at Princeton High School in a triangular that starts at 5 p.m.

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