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Pipestone Area junior Hudson Burnett places first at 132 pounds.
Although limited in numbers due to several of its youngsters slated to compete at Saturday’s MSHSL Ninth-Grade State Qualifier in Redwood Falls (see below), the Pipestone Area wrestling team had a strong showing at Friday night’s HighWater Ethanol Invitational tournament in Lamberton.
The Arrows (119.5), who placed fourth behind Kerkohoven-Murdock-Sunburg (163), Adrian (158.5) and New Ulm (137) at the nine-team event, claimed an individual title, a trio of runner-up finishes and a bronze medal on the day.
“We came out, wrestled to expectations and put four guys in the finals,” Bos said. “We had a couple guys come back after some struggles and wrestle to their capabilities, which was nice to see.
“We were shorthanded a bit; if we’d had our starting 106-pounder, a 113-pounder, a 126-pounder and a 152 (pounder) we probably would have placed higher. But there are other schools in the same position because of this ninth-grade league.”
PAS junior Hudson Burnett earned the crown at 132 pounds in Lamberton, going 3-0 with a pair of falls and a technical fall. Burnett made short work of LeSueur-Henderson’s Isaac Holloway in the quarterfinals, pinning the Giants’ grappler at 1:32. Fulda/Murray County Central’s Denver Ash went the distance with Burnett, but scored few points losing 18-1, while St. James’ Talyn Tande made it to the second period of the finals before Burnett could earn the fall.
Classmate Brayden Burmeister went 1-1 on the day to emerge as the runner-up at 126 pounds. After receiving a bye to open his tournament, Burmeister edged LS-H’s Dalton Wilson 10-8 to advance to the finals. There, Burmeister was caught by K-M-S’ Trey Gunderson – bowing out by fall at 1:07 to place second.
Also earning runner-up finishes were Jackson Melcher (182) and Aiden Voss (220). The former had a pair of falls to reach the finals, but was shut out by Adrian’s Quintin Wolff 3-0, while the latter also had a pair of falls – one early (:52) and one late (5:05) – to qualify for a title shot. Unfortunately for the PAS senior, Adrian’s Jaren Winselman turned the tables on him in the finals, ending the tilt 70 seconds in to place Voss second.
Classmate Davis Budden captured third place in Lamberton, posting a 3-1 record at 138 pounds. Budden fell into the consolation bracket following a pinfall loss to Red Rock Central Evan Bartholomaus in the semifinals, but bounced back well to earn a third-place match. And after pulling out a 4-2 sudden-victory over K-M-S’ Noah Johnson in the consolation semifinals, Budden stuck F/MCC’s Aiden Lorenzen midway through the third period to finish third.
The Arrows had a pair of grapplers place fifth on the day, as Lucas Thooft scratched out a record of 1-2 at 160 pounds and Bode Bruns went 1-2 at 170 pounds.
Andres Guardado went 0-3 at 106 pounds to place sixth, while Ritch Sobrecary was 1-3 in placing sixth at 152 pounds.
As Coach Bos noted, his Arrows – like several teams – are short due to Ninth-Grade League action, and that won’t change until after the weekend. A few of the young state qualifiers from the league are likely to have double and triple duty moving into Saturday.
“We have a couple important individual matches we need to see between the two events Thursday and Friday,” he said. “They’ll be important for us to see where we’re at and for section seedings. Depending on what happens, we could bump a kid up a weight for the individuals (at sections) or we stay down and take care of business.
“There’s always work to be done and we always want to be on improving. Of course, we always work on the basic stuff because that’s what wins, but we’ll also look at some of the little things… hand position, how to keep someone from standing up on us, how to bring them back down to the mat, how do we get out of hand control… set ups, being physical keeping your motor running. We’ve always been in good shape and it’s helped us over the years. Other teams are in good shape too, so we don’t want to be behind them when we wrestle.”
The Arrows will be back in action Thursday night when they host the Wabasso Rabbits in a dual meet in Pipestone.
JCC 52, PAS 24
Taking the Ninth-Grade League competitions into account, the Arrows didn’t send a full complement of grapplers to the mat in Jackson Thursday evening.
PAS claimed a mere four victories, three contested, on the night. Burnett pinned Cael Entriken at 132 pounds, Budden knocked off Nolan Ambrose via injury default, Voss stuck Bryden Winter at 3:56 of the 195-pound tilt and Burmeister won by forfeit at 120 pounds.
The Pipestone Area wrestling team qualified four grapplers for the MSHSL Ninth-Grade League state tournament following their performances at Saturday’s qualifier in Redwood Falls. Qualifiers are (front, l-r) Carloserial Perez-Garcia (100 pounds), Miklo Hernandez (106), Haden Mulvihill (120) and (back) Xavier Banjoko (160). Submitted photo
Ninth-Grade League Qualifier
Several of the younger Arrow grapplers competed at the MSHSL Ninth-Grade League qualifier Saturday in Redwood Falls with four individuals placing either first or second to earn a trip to the upcoming state tournament Saturday at Champlin Park High School in Champlin Park.
Northern Youth Wrestling Association state champion Miklo Hernandez, who went 4-0 on the day, claimed first place at 106 pounds and will have a shot at a MSHSL Ninth-Grade League state title Saturday. He will be joined by Carloserial Perez-Garcia (100 pounds), Haden Mulvihill (120) and Xavier Banjoko (160), who finished the seeded qualifier as runners up with identical 4-1 records.
“They wrestled really tough throughout the tournament and their spots at the state tournament are well-deserved,” Coach Paul Young said. “They’re seeded according to weight, records and previous placings at the qualifier – if any.
“And each of these wrestlers has a shot at placing or winning the tournament, but there are no classes like the varsity high school state tournament. That means they’ll be going up against all qualifiers across the state. Those four have a good shot at doing well and, hopefully, they’ll place and maybe win one. We’ll see how it goes, who shows up and who’s ready to wrestle.”
Also earning podium finishes were Mason Fruechte (88 pounds), fourth with a record of 3-2, Lane Fruechte (94), fourth with a 3-2 record, Griffin Smidt (170), fifth with a record of 3-2, Carlos Saenlouangraj (145), sixth with a record of 2-3, and Finley Whipkey (138), seventh with a record of 1-2.
Also competing for the Arrows Saturday in Redwood Falls were Troy Chauslett (113) and Kyson Evans (132), each posting of 1-2.
“Overall, well throughout the tournament very well,” Young said. “Most kids have 4-5 matches and it definitely takes a toll on these kids -especially wrestling that many matches. They showed extremely well and I’m proud of them.
“It’ll be a big week for those moving on because we have a dual Thursday and a triangular Friday before going to state Saturday. These kids will be getting plenty of mat time heading into the tournament, and we’ll try to fine-tune things as much as we can in preparation for state.”
