By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
It was a successful week for the NRHEG wrestling team, which defeated Blooming Prairie in the Gopher Conference opener Thursday and placed fifth in Saturday’s Paul Krueger Classic at St. James.
The Panthers dominated the visiting Blossoms. Posting victories were Andrew Reich, 106 pounds; Bryce Okland, 152; Karter Sletten, 170; and Trey Hoppe, 182. Winning by forfeit: Cordell Peterson, 126; Cole Staloch, 145; Zeke Erickson, 220; and Wyatt Fitterer 285.
“In this match we were much more competitive then when we last competed,” said NRHEG coach Shawn Larson. “I was happy to see that we were aggressive in just about every match that was contested, even in some of the matches we lost. Coach Gimbel has his team competing at a level that we have not seen from them recently, and every wrestler they sent out was ready to compete. It was a good dual overall, however we still have many things to work on to compete with the competition that is coming our way in the near future.”
The Panthers finished behind Jackson County Central, St. James Area, Marshall-Lakeview and LCWM on Saturday. They finished ahead of Hayfield and Minnehaha Academy-DeLaSalle. NRHEG entered 10 wrestlers and each placed, as well as a non-scoring wrestler.Champions were Peterson, Hoppe and Zeke Erickson. Fitterer and Lucas Hermann finished second, Sletten and Brett Kubiatowicz third, Tyler Jacobson, Trai Wicks and Chad Erickson (non-scoring) fifth, and Okland sixth.
“I was extremely happy to see our guys were not content with how we wrestled last week,” said Larson. “We were much more competitive in this tournament. So many of the little things we were able to do today made a tremendous difference in our ability to compete. If we can keep attempting to score points in all situations and continue to improve on our basic skills, we will be well on our way to meeting our goals.”
The Panthers’ next action is this Saturday with a nonconference dual meet at Pine Island.