By DALE KUGATH
Sportswriter
The New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva wrestling team faced one of its toughest weeks of the season on the mats last week.
The Panthers were soundly thumped by two of the top teams in Section 1A at Chatfield last Thursday, losing to Kenyon-Wanamingo and Chatfield.
An extremely tough field at the Hutchinson Invitational saw NRHEG finish last in the eight-team field.
Coach Paul Cyr’s Panthers are 1-0 in the Gopher Conference and 2-3 for the season.
Chatfield
CHATFIELD – Chatfield built up a 42-0 lead and cruised past the Panthers 51-18. The Gophers are 22-1 this season.
Chatfield jumped on NRHEG for a major decision, five falls, a technical fall and a decision to lead 42-0 after the first eight weights.Matt Webster had the only close match for NRHEG, dropping a 5-2 verdict at 152-pounds.
Dillon Parpart put an end to the Chatfield streak at 160, capturing a solid 16-6 major decision over Devin Deyo.
Cody Ripka earned the second Panther win of the match at 182 when he grabbed a 13-5 major decision over Chatfield’s Sam Fryer.
Keith Maxon followed with an identical 13-5 major decision against Jacob Blees of the Gophers at 195.
NRHEG’s Wyatt Fitterer closed out the match on a positive note for NRHEG with a 1:32 fall against Chatfield’s Monte Flores-Ruesnick at 285.
“This was one of our most disappointing efforts of the season,” said Cyr. “We were expecting to compete at a much higher level against both of these teams, and that wasn’t the case.”
Kenyon-Wanamingo
CHATFIELD – The Kenyon-Wanamingo match followed the same format. Kenyon-Wanamingo built up a 33-0 lead after eight weights and picked up an easy 48-15 victory.
NRHEG did have some closer matches to start the match. Dillon Kubiatowicz lost 7-0 at 113, Dustin Burshem fell to 7-3 at 132, Tyler Logan dropped an 11-6 verdict at 145 and Trey Hoppe was edged 9-7 at 152.
Parpart became the lone Panther double winner for the night with a 7-4 victory over K-W’s Mason Stevenson at 160.
NRHEG did not win again until the final two weight classes. At 220, Todd Erickson carved out an 8-3 decision over Nick Unger of the Knights.
Zeke Erickson needed just 1:21 to put Kenyon’s Seth Dunkers on his back in the 285 finale.
Hutchinson Invite
HUTCHINSON – NRHEG didn’t have any time to recover as it traveled to a loaded Hutchinson Invitational Saturday.
“Coming off a distressing performance at Chatfield, we didn’t know what to expect. We competed at a much higher level than we did Thursday,” said Cyr. “Unfortunately, the level of competition was even better so our results didn’t show the kind of effort that we put forth.”
Two-time state champ Jackson County Central racked up 202.5 points to hold off Prior Lake (199) for the championship in the eight-team field. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City finished third with 162 points and Hutchinson was fourth at 159.
NRHEG finished eighth with 55 points, three points behind seventh-place Willmar.
NRHEG and Hutchinson were the only teams not to have an individual champion. Jackson and Watertown-Mayer led the way with three winners apiece.
The Panthers had seven wrestlers place among the top six in their weight class, but only two were able to crack the top four.
Kubiatowicz was NRHEG’s top finisher for the day, taking second at 113. Kubiatowicz upset the top seed in the semifinals before losing 9-3 to Dylan Sogge of Prior Lake in the title match.
Todd Erickson grabbed fourth place at 220. He got pinned in the third-place match.
Bartness finished fifth for the Panthers at 170.
NRHEG’s sixth-place winners included Wayne (126), Parpart (160), Ripka (182) and Maxon (195). Maxon was edged 9-7 in his fifth-place match.
United South Central comes to New Richland for a key Gopher Conference match this evening. The Rebels, who defeated the Panthers 50-24 last season, are 2-0 in the conference and 9-9 for the year.
NRHEG wrestles at Chisago Lakes Friday.
Chatfield 51, NRHEG 18
106-Goldsmith (C) maj. dec. C. Peterson (NR) 12-1, 113-Van Sickle (C) pinned Kubiatowicz (NR) 1:21, 120-Hank Friederichs (C) pinned P. Peterson (NR) 1:43, 126-Riley (C) pinned Wayne (NR) 3:12, 132-Harvey Friederichs (C) pinned Burshem (NR) 1:29, 138-Meeker (C) pinned Zimmerman (NR) 3:42, 145-Haffner (C) tech. fall Logan (NR) 5:48, 152-Wright (C) dec. Webster (NR) 5-2, 160-Parpart (NR) maj. dec. Deyo (C) 16-6, 170-Bly (C) pinned Bartness (NR) 1:37, 182-Ripka (NR) maj. dec. Fryer (C) 13-5, 195-Maxon (NR) maj. dec. Blees (C) 13-5, 220-Viss (C) dec. Erickson (NR) 7-0, 285-Fitterer (NR) pinned Flores-Ruesnick (C) 1:32.
Kenyon 48, NRHEG 15
106-Jared Clawiter (KW) maj. dec. C. Peterson (NR) 11-1, 113-Kish (KW) dec. Kubiatowicz (NR) 7-0, 120-Androli (KW) pinned P. Peterson (NR) 0:41, 126-Jace Clawiter (KW) tech. fall Wayne (NR) 5:41, 132-Rechtzigel (KW) dec. Burshem (NR) 7-3, 138-Brossard (KW) pinned Zimmerman (NR) 3:28, 145-Nick Bauer (KW) dec. Logan (NR) 11-6, 152-Matt Bauer (KW) dec. Hoppe (NR) 9-7, 160-Parpart (NR) dec. Stevenson (KW) 7-4, 170-Bartness (NR) Paquin (KW) 2:28, 182-Alex Jackson (KW) pinned Jewett (NR) 2:30, 195-Austin Jackson (KW) pinned Maxon (NR) 2:06, 220-Langer (KW) dec. Todd Erickson (NR) 8-3, 285-Zeke Erickson (NR) pinned Donkers (KW) 1:21.
Hutchinson Invite
Team scores: 1)-Jackson 202.5, 2)-Prior Lake 199, 3)-Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 162, 4)-Hutchinson 159, 5)-Watertown-Mayer 152.5, 6)-Totino-Grace 140, 7)-Willmar 58, NRHEG 55.
NRHEG placewinners
113-Kubiatowicz 2nd
126-Wayne 6th
160-Parpart 6th
170-Bartness 5th
182-Ripka 6th
195-Maxon 6th
220-Erickson 4th
NEXT: Tonight-USC at NRHEG, 7 p.m.