by Mike Isola,
Staff Writer
In a key section dual against the visiting New York Mills Eagles on Jan. 23, the Wolverines took an early 7-0 lead after the first two matches on wins from Jordan Rentz and Shawn Beversluis. Rentz scored a 12-4 major decision over Josh Bernu while Beversluis edged Brian Schornack 7-5.
The defending section champions won the next three matches to regain the 16-7 lead. The Eagles saw Jesse Bauck major decision Jared Wegscheid 14-6, picked up a forfeit at 125, and Jordan Novak pinned Jacob Wegscheid at 1:40.
Kenny Steffens continued his winning ways by scoring a 7-3 decision over Jordan Vaught for his 10th win of the season and inching the Wolverines closer at 16-10. But the Eagles reeled off three straight wins to increase their lead to 29-10.
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The Eagles' Jason Burg, ranked second in state and undefeated on the season, pinned Wolverine Trey VanOrsdel in 1:21.
"[Burg] is just an incredible wrestler," said Wolverine coach Norm Gallant. "[Trey] tried to go upper body with him and really wasn't in that bad of position, but Burg just took him out of position and once he got Trey to the mat, he wasn't going to let go."
The Eagles added back-to-back wins from Ethan Marsh and Brian Fischer. The Wolverines turned the tables by winning the next four matches to regain the 31-29 lead, starting with Steve Lustila picking up a forfeit win at 160. Tony Wegscheid kept the momentum going with his 25 second pin of Eagle Jarrod Norton and Kevin Trout decisioned Mark Simpson 10-3 at 189. Josh Sweere's pin at 1:27 over Andy Hendrickx gave the Wolverines the brief lead heading into the final match of the night.
Eagles' heavyweight Andrew Frost made short work of Tyler Wohlwend and pinned him at 1:13 to dash the Wolverines' hopes of an upset and give New York Mills the 35-31 win.
"I hate to lose these kinds of duals, but it was a great dual," Gallant said. "The flip of the coin was very big. If we had our choice, we would have went away from Burg to try to pick up six at the next weight but by the same token, that would have changed some match-ups in Mills' favor up top."
On Jan. 25, it was Déj? vu for the Wolverines in the 39-36 loss at Breckenridge. Again, the Wolverines started strong with back-to-back pins from Rentz and Beversluis spotted the Wolverines a 12-0 lead.
Breckenridge stormed back with three wins until Steffens stopped the bleeding with his close 6-3 victory over Cowboy Stephen Erlandson.
At 140, Breckenridge caught the Wolverines off guard a bit when they chose to forfeit. The forfeit locked VanOrsdel in, said Gallant, and allowed the Cowboys to get better match ups at 145 and 152, where they earned two pins to take a 27-21 lead.
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"I really never expected that move," Gallant said. "I was caught by surprise, before I could think about it I had Trey taking the forfeit. In retrospect I should have double forfeited and moved Trey up. I got caught up and didn't think through things as well as I should have. That won't happen again."
Lustila once again started another Wolverine rally by overcoming a 12-2 deficit to pin Josh Stuehrenberg with three seconds left in the match. Wegscheid followed with a 3-2 win over Jake Owens, and Trout made quick work of Isaac Meyers with a fall in just 1:45.
The Cowboys dashed any hopes of a victory by the Wolverines when Joel Paur pinned Wohlwend and Luke Poppel put the final nail in the coffin with a second period pin of Sweere.
The two losses drop the Wolverines to fourth in the Section 7A standings.
"We've got our work cut out for us, but I think we still have a good opportunity in the section," Gallant said. "Everyone is very even, we just need to peak at the right time. The team that is the healthiest and wrestling the best will represent the section. Hopefully it's us."
On Tuesday, the Minnesota State High School League implemented a state-wide suspension of all high school wrestling activities. The Minnesota High School wrestling community has been experiencing an outbreak of Herpes Gladiatorum, a skin infection due to Herpes Simplex type-1 virus. There will be no competition from Tuesday, Jan. 30 through Feb. 6.
The Wolverines dual meet scheduled with Staples-Motley today (Thursday) has been cancelled as well as WDC's participation in the Alexandria Invitational on Saturday.
