Arrow grapplers head into sections following splits




 

 

The Pipestone Area wrestling team rolled into the postseason Saturday in Windom, as the Arrows participated in the Big South Conference meet.
Pipestone Area, which currently sports a 12-12 record in its duals, added another split on the day beating the Saint James Saints before bowing out to Windom/Mountain Lake.

PAS 49, St. James 30
W/ML 43, PAS 22
Although Pipestone Area was able to handle St. James to open the tournament, the Arrows’ struggled to contend with the Cobras afterward with match-count issues at the heart of the problem.
“We were down in numbers; Michael was gone at a youth gathering, so that was points off the board to start with, and we gave up some matches in the lighter weights in the second one,” Pipestone Area head coach Brian Bos said. “We handled our business against St. James, but we were just outgunned down below against Windom. We had match-count issues there (Garrett and Carson) and with Jake Haubrich for the same reason. So, we end up giving up four forfeits, Michael’s not there, and that’s hard to overcome. We were right in that dual if we had our lineup. We wrestled well and wrestled hard.”
The Arrows gave up a trio of pins to open their dual with St. James, but Emerson Winter and Jacoby Hunt earned forfeit victories at 126 and 132 pounds to draw PAS closer.
Garrett Ploeger then knotted the team score at 18-all with a fall over SJ’s Max Svalland at 138 pounds, and Haubrich followed with an 11-1 major decision against Tyler Westman at 145.
The Saints pulled six points back with Josh Stordlan (152 pounds) pinning Arrow Logan Steenstra, but McKinley Bush recouped half of those markers with an 11-7 decision over Jesse Carlson at 160 pounds.
The Arrows claimed 4-of-5 to close out the dual, as Will Smith pinned at 170 pounds, Jamison VanderWal (182) and Jacob Gelderman (195) garnered

 

 

forfeit victories and Blake Wolters (Hwt.) earned a third-period pinfall.
Against the Cobras, the Arrows again didn’t get on the scoreboard until the 126-pound tilt where Winter went the distance for a hard-fought three points beating Hayden Fast, 7-5.
“Emerson had a huge win for us at 126, beat a kid that beat Jacoby a couple weeks ago,” Bos said. “So, that’s nice for him to do that got down early and battled back. I also thought McKinley wrestled well. He wrestled well all day Saturday, and I was happy to see that.”
Bush was the next Arrow to emerge victorious, as the sophomore 160-pounder doubled up Jacob Suess for another three points.
Smith (170, forfeit), Wolters (220, major) and Cole Staples (Hwt., forfeit) earned the remainder of the scoring points for the Arrows, who will travel to Wabasso Thursday to face Wabasso/RRC in the first round of the Section 3A team tournament.
Although the Arrows will need an upset to advance, the focus is primarily the same as it’s been all season.
“I think the goal that I’ve given these kids all year long is just make ourselves better,” Bos said. “We have a couple things we’ll work on this week in keeping with that goal. We’ll try to give Wabasso a better match than we did before, and that’s the goal. We don’t have seven guys who can go out and beat seven of their guys. So, maybe it’s four rather than three this time make it closer, make it tight and you never know what can happen when you pressure a team.”

PAS 37, Quad County 21
Minneota 57, PAS 10
The Arrows earned a split to close out the regular season Thursday in Pipestone, beating the Cobras before falling to the Vikings.
PAS got a nice match from 106-pounder Grant Budden to open the dual with Quad County. Budden was the aggressor from the

 

 

onset of his match with Gunner Stein and gave the hosts a 4-0 lead with a 14-0 major decision.
The Cobras returned the favor and more in the ensuing tilt, as Tori Rupp (113 pounds) pinned Carson Wipf, but Suda expended no energy in gaining six points back with a forfeit victory at 120 pounds.
Winter followed with a well-earned win at 126 pounds, beating QC’s Jordan Odegard 8-6 before Hunt could claim an 11-7 decision over Ethan Thein at 132 pounds bringing the score to 18-6 in favor of the Arrows.
Ploeger kept the Arrows moving forward with a 6-4 decision over Miles Kattevold at 138 pounds, but QC rebounded with a pair of decisions at 145 and 152 to pull within nine at 21-12.
Bush (160) and Smith (182) wrapped decision victories around a narrow 6-4 defeat by VanderWal at 170 pounds, while both Staples and Wolters had pins to close out the dual match for the Arrows.
“It’s what I expected out of those two,” Bos said. “It was a good win for us against Quad, that was going to be nip-and-tuck, and we wrestled really well Thursday night. We even wrestled well against Minneota, so I was happy with the boys’ efforts there.”
Victories were few and far between for the Arrows against the Vikings, as Suda, Haubrich and Smith earned the 10 PAS points in the dual.
Suda was challenged by Brenden Reiss and, in the end, claimed a slim 10-8 decision, while Haubrich was a 14-0 winner over Kolin Drietz and Smith edged Alec Bueltel, 7-6.
Both Staples and Wolters (220 and heavyweight, respectively) dropped tight tilts, with the former falling 2-0 to Everett VanHecke and the latter bowing out 4-2 to Trent Esping.
“We knew our chances of beating Minneota weren’t good, so let’s go let them know we wrestled them at least,” Bos said. “We wrestled well Thursday night, and finished the regular season with an 11-11 record.”