By DALE KUGATH
Sportswriter
STEWARTVILLE – The New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva wrestling team racked up its highest point total in a tournament at Stewartville Saturday.
Coach Paul Cyr’s grapplers scored 124.5 points, earning them fifth place among nine teams. New Hampton, Iowa won the meet with 186 points, followed by Rochester Mayo with 175.5.
The Panthers scored 186.5 points last season to finish third among 10 teams.
NRHEG is 1-0 in the Gopher Conference and 2-1 overall this winter.
NRHEG had one champion and one runner-up, while placing nine of the 12 grapplers that wrestled.
“I felt we performed pretty well. Some of our younger guys are wrestling better,” said Cyr. “We need to get more guys into the finals if we want to move up in the standings.”Keith Maxon earned a first-place finish at 195-pounds. He won 8-2 and had a fall in 3:51 to reach the finals. Maxon claimed the title with a 4-2, overtime victory against Alex Brown of Rochester JM.
Dillon Parpart also reached the championship match at 170, but wasn’t as lucky as Maxon.
Parpart had a second-period pin in his opening match and defeated a Mayo wrestler 7-5 in the semifinals. However, New Hampton’s Wyatt Rosonke held off Parpart 7-3 in the title bout.
“Keith was very workmanlike during the day,” said Cyr. “Dillon wrestled a great semifinal match to reach the finals.”
Dillon Kubiatowicz at 113 and Todd Erickson at 220 both won three out of four matches to place third. Both lost their only match to the eventual champion.
Kubiatowicz opened with a 7-5 win before falling to Michael Otomo of Dover-Eyota 9-3. Kubiatowicz won 4-0 and 6-2 to claim third place.
Erickson started with a fall before getting pinned in the second period by Zach Orang of Rochester Mayo. Erickson recovered by recording two falls, one in 54 seconds.
Cordell Peterson at 106 and Tyler Logan at 145 split four matches to finish fourth.
Peterson won 11-3, lost by technical fall, won 10-7 and lost 10-2 during his fourth-place day.
Logan had a first-period fall, was defeated 12-3, recorded his second fall of the day and lost 11-5.
Nick Bartness won three of five matches at 160. He started with a first-period pin before getting beat 18-3. Bartness rebounded with a wild 17-13 win before losing 13-5. He ended his day with a 6-5 victory over Aaron Clark of Stewartville.
Allan Zimmerman had a 2-3 day at 138 for the Panthers. He had wins of 10-0 and 9-4, but also got pinned three times.
Cody Ripka ended up 2-2 at 182. His two wins were by technical fall and a pin. He was pinned both times in his defeats.
Jet Wayne (0-2) at 126, Dustin Burshem (0-2) at 132 and Matt Webster (0-3) at 152 failed to win for the Panthers.
The NRHERG junior varsity squad had four individual winners. Zeke Erickson, Wyatt Fitterer, Sam Jewett and Trey Hoppe captured championships for the Panthers.
NRHEG faces a stiff test this week. Today the Panthers will battle Kenyon-Wanamingo and Chatfield at Chatfield.
NRHEG will wrestle at Hutchinson Saturday where the number one (Jackson) and number two (Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City) teams will compete. Prior Lake and host Hutchinson will also provide tough competition.
United South Central comes to New Richland next Thursday.
Stewartville Invite
Team scores: 1)-New Hampton, Iowa 188, 2)-Rochester Mayo 175.5, 3)-Caledonia 136, 4)-Dover-Eyota 126, 5)-NRHEG 124.5, 6)-Grand Meadow/LOR & Stewartville 120, 8)-Rochester JM 113.5, 9)-Rochester Century 64.
NRHEG RESULTS
106-C. Peterson (2-2) 4th
113-Kubiatowicz (3-1) 3rd
120-No entrant
126-Wayne (0-2)
132-Burshem (0-2)
138-Zimmerman (2-3)
145-Logan (2-2) 4th
152-Webster (0-3)
160-Bartness (3-2)
170-Parpart (2-1) 2nd
182-Ripka (2-2)
195-Maxon (3-0) 1st
220-Erickson (3-1) 3rd
285-No entrant
TOTALS – (22-21) 5th
NEXT: Today – NRHEG & Kenyon-Wanamingo at Chatfield, 5 p.m.