Arrow grapplers go 3-2 at Invitational, Wolters wins 100th career match




 

 

The Arrows gave better than they received Saturday as hosts of the Pipestone Invitational wrestling tournament, finishing 3-2 in their five duals against competition near and far.
Pipestone Area claimed victories over Medford, T-M-B/W-WG and Luverne while dropping duals to Wabasso/Red Rock Central and Cedar Rapids Jefferson.
“Duals are fun; it’s a good time for everyone,” Pipestone Area head coach Brian Bos said. “It’s about team, so everyone’s involved all day long, and you get to get other kids in there. I probably used 19 kids throughout the day in the 14 weight classes, so it’s really good that way. That’s always nice.”

Wabasso 49, PAS 19
What wasn’t so nice for the Arrows was they way they opened the tournament, falling to the rival Bobcats a team that has presented myriad problems for Pipestone Area throughout recent seasons.
“I don’t think we came out to wrestle that one,” Bos said. “I don’t know if it was the Wabasso Blues’ or what, but because we’ve been beaten by them so many times it’s hard to get motivated to go up against them. We have to get over that. I’m tired of getting beaten by them; we’re going to have to turn things around soon because it’s getting old.”
The Arrows fell behind early, with W/RRC’s Josh Hesse pinning Grant Budden in the second period of the 106-pound tilt, but came back with three straight beginning with Eric Lange’s 16-7 major decision over Wabasso’s Ben Johnson.
Arrow sophomore Hunter Burnett garnered a forfeit victory at 120 pounds, and Michael Suda followed with another six points with a late first-period fall off the Bobcats’ Zeke Johnson giving PAS a 16-6 lead.
It was a lead that would soon vanish, however, as the Bobcats claimed nine of the final 10 tilts of the dual in winning by 30 points.
Falls by Tyson Doubler and Jared Schroepfer over Jordan Baatz and Nathan Westfield, respectively, pulled the Bobcats to within four points (12-16) before Brakken Bierl knotted the score at 16-all with a major decision (8-0) over Bill Olsen at 145 pounds.
Bobcat 152-pounder Caleb Kemp gave W/RRC the lead for good with an 11-0 major decision against PAS’ Logan Steenstra, and Mitchell Fulton was gifted a forfeit victory at 160 pounds.
Nick Altermatt claimed the Bobcats’ fifth straight victory with a 10-1 major decision over McKinley Bush at 170 pounds before the Arrows could momentarily stop the bleeding through a Garrett Ploeger 4-2 overtime victory over Devan Liebl at 182 pounds.
The Bobcats closed out the dual with a trio of wins, as Cole Anderson, Cody Coulter and Jared Welsh defeated Arrows Dustin Olsen, Dylan Arndt and Blake Wolters, respectively, at 195, 220 and heavyweight the final match denying the PAS senior his 100th career victory.
We wrestled a few years back, and he got the better of me there,” Wolters said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match because he’s a good wrestler really good on top. That’s where I had to beat him, and I didn’t quite get it done. I might have been too pumped up, but I felt like I was in control felt good on my feet. I knew

 

 

I had to get out from the bottom, but didn’t quite get it done. He’s good at what he does.”

PAS 74, Medford 6
The Arrows stormed back against a slim Tiger roster that saw only nine Medford wrestlers take the mat.
“I feel bad for them because both their coaches are good guys,” Bos said. “It would be nice to see them fill the lineup up because they’d be tough have some good coaches there.”
The final tilt of the dual saw Wolters earn his 100th career victory, as he recorded a second-period fall of Medford’s Trevor Spatenka.
“It was good to get it out of the way because it’s been staring me in the face for a couple of weeks now,” Wolters said. “I didn’t get a match against Tracy and I’ve been thinking about it over Christmas break, so it’s nice to get it over and done with so I can focus on the rest of the season.
“It about going out now, wrestling matches and beating kids, and working hard in the room. I have to work on the bottom and push myself there that and pushing my lungs so I can go for 10 minutes instead of six. That might come into play later on.”
Before Wolters’ milestone victory, the Arrows had complete control of the dual beginning with the opening tilt at 106 pounds.
There, Budden scored an early third-period fall against Medford’s Johnny Meyer to put the Arrows on top 6-0.
Burnett’s technical fall (18-2) of Bryce Iisowski and Suda’s second-period fall against Willie Von Ruden at 113 and 120 pounds, respectively, preceded three consecutive forfeit victories by Arrows Josh Homann, Baatz and Westfield pushing PAS’ advantage to 35-0.
Medford’s Bo Noble fired back at 145 pounds for the Tigers’ lone victory of the dual, a first-period fall of the Arrows’ Emerson Winter.
Of the seven remaining tilts, Steenstra and Arndt were gifted forfeits, while Ploeger won a tight 5-2 decision and Bush, Jamison Vanderwal, Olsen and Wolters each won by fall.

Cedar Rapids Jefferson 39, PAS 27
The much-anticipated reunion of coaches Dick Briggs and Bos carried plenty of excitement into the third round of duals.
Although there were some friendly exchanges between mentor and student throughout, the grapplers were far less interested in being colloquial as several tilts pitted eager, ranked combatants against one another.
“Obviously, the big ones were at 113 and 120 pounds,” Bos said. “We matched up with a couple of their highly state-ranked (Iowa, 3A), and Hunter pulls one out and the end and Michael controlled his guy all the way through I thought. It was good to get those, but there’s just nowhere to hide in the middle (weights). They just had too many good guys. We turn a match around here or there, and it’s a winnable dual for us could have been.”
Budden again gave the Arrows the early lead, as he claimed his second fall of the day a second-period pin against CRJ’s Jaden Collins.
Burnett followed with an extremely tight match against seventh-ranked Joseph Sibomana that saw the ranked Arrow sophomore come back for a 4-3 decision and a 9-0 PAS lead.
 [/caption] />Suda managed an early third-period nearfall against third-ranked Brenden Baker which proved just enough to give him a 9-7 decision and bump the host team’s lead to 12-0 before the J-Hawks could mount their comeback.
Zach Main erased the goose egg off the J-Hawks’ side of the scoreboard with a first-period fall of Homann at 126 pounds. Teammate Dalton Mastin followed with an 11-0 major decision against Baatz, and the Arrows lead was a scant two points (12-10).
Westfield put a momentary halt to the J-Hawks’ run with a first-period fall of Matt Storm at 138 pounds, but CRJ’s Coltin Endsley (145), second-ranked Kyle Briggs (152), fifth-ranked Tavian Rashed (160), eighth-ranked Matt Culver (170) and sixth-ranked Nick Dreckman (182) ran roughshod through the middle of the Arrows’ lineup with the exception being a 9-7 overtime victory by Endsley over Bill Olsen.
The Arrows bounced back to claim two of the final three tilts, as Dustin Olsen edged CRJ’s Taylor Viktora at 195 pounds and Wolters pinned David Bonner in the heavyweight bout sandwiched around Keenan Stewart’s pinfall of Arndt at 220 pounds.

PAS 44, T-M-B/W-WG 27
The Arrows’ dual with the Panthers went much the same way as their previous meeting, Dec. 22, 2015 in Pipestone.
“We handled them just like we did the last time,” Bos said. “There were a couple of matches that were nip-and-tuck, and won the close ones the ones we needed to.”
Budden wrestled a sound match against the Panthers’ Dereck Ellingson, but came up short at 6-4 in the opening bout.
Lange followed with a shutout decision (6-0) against Derek VanDam at 113 pounds before Burnett and Suda posted a 12-3 major and a fall, respectively, over Anthony Axford and Tyler Vandendriessche at 120 and 126 pounds.
Westfield, a pinfall winner over Austin Axford, made it four straight for the Arrows before the Panthers’ Jace Poplow (138) could snatch six points back with a late third-period fall of Baatz.
Logan Axford (145) and teammate Nash Meyer (152) kept the Panthers moving forward with respective falls of Jesse Fenton and Bill Olsen, but the Arrows claimed five of the final six tilts to carry the dual.
Steenstra (160) bounced back from his loss to Briggs with a 13-1 major decision over T-M-B/W-WG’s Tyler Timm, and Bush followed with a second-period fall against Dawson Iverson at 170 pounds.
Ploeger earned a forfeit victory at 182 pounds before Vanderwal could edge Austin Buchholz 9-8 at 195.
Dustin Olsen couldn’t match the Panthers’ Cole Olson, bowing out in the second period, but Wolters recouped those points with a pinfall of Sam Bauer in the heavyweight match.

PAS 24, Luverne 0
Worried about match count, the Cardinals opted to wrestle a mere three matches against the Arrows dropping all three.
In addition, the Arrows’ Sherman Taber claimed a forfeit victory at 120 pounds to account for the final margin of victory.
Of the three matches actually wrestled, Burnett won by fall against Tucker Oeltjenbruns at 113 pounds, Westfield pinned Jed Dooyema at 132 and Vanderwal stuck Brandon Claussen at 1:21 of the 182-pound bout.
The Arrows (9-4) will be back in action Friday evening at a triangular meet against host BOLD and the New Ulm Eagles.