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by CHUCK FITZER

Becker Quadrangular

The Wildcat wrestling team wrestled three duals at Becker High School on Thursday, December 11.  But Becker only reported one of Chisago Lakes’ matches, a 67-6 loss to Becker.  Matt Raboin Jr. (285) was responsible for all the Wildcat points, pinning Deegan Schmidt of Becker in just 41 seconds.

Hopkins Athena Invitational

The girls’ Hopkins Athena Invitational, one of the largest tournaments in the state, featured hundreds of girl wrestlers from 60 schools located all over the state. Seven Wildcat girls wrestled in the tournament,  In the A bracket, Charlotte Rehbein (136) finished fourth and Libby Carlson (235) came in sixth.  In the B bracket, Ruby Schlender (170) came in third.  In the C bracket, Cora Hinsch (112) finished eighth, Bella Widmer (124) took fourth place, Sienna Frederixon (136-2) finished second, and Quinn Vega (148) finished seventh.  Team scores were kept, but the Wildcats’ score was inadvertently left off the list, so we do not know where they finished as a team.

Rock Ridge Holiday Classic

Lucas Yang (139) defeated Grayson Bennett of Rock Ridge 8-5 in overtime to win the 139-pound championship Saturday, December 13 at the Rock Ridge Holiday Classic.  The Wildcats finished fourth in the ten-team tournament, not too far behind second place Rush City-Braham and third place Rock Ridge.  Four Wildcats came in second at their weights – Grant Hansen (107), Henry DeCorsey (172), Luke Grabow (189), and Matt Raboin (285).

Yang beat Emerson Umbreit of Rush City-Braham by a 10-0 major decision in his opening match.  He decisioned Meryk Ullman of Roseau 10-3 in the semifinals.  In the championship match, Bennett went up 3-0 with a takedown at 38 seconds.  Yang escaped quickly for one point.  Yang got a stalling warning at 1:45 but got a takedown at the end of the period to go up 4-3.  Yang chose bottom in the second period and took just seven seconds to escape, increasing his lead to 5-3.  Bennett chose bottom in the third period.  Yang got another stalling warning, which gave Bennett a point to cut Yang’s lead to 5-4.  Bennett escaped at 4:39 to tie the match at 5-5.  Bennett was given a stalling warning at 5:44, but since it was his first of the match it did not result in any points for Yang.  In the first one-minute overtime, Yang got a takedown at 6:36, giving him three points and the championship.

Wrestling Whangdoodles

The Wildcats have two more varsity boys’ events prior to the holidays.  Tonight, they will travel to St. Paul Johnson High School for a triangular with Johnson and South St. Paul.  Tomorrow night, they head to St. Agnes High School for a quadrangular with St. Agnes, Norwood Young America, and South St. Paul.  5 p.m. both days.

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