Panthers thwart WEM/JWP in dual
By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
Coming off an impressive dual-meet victory, the NRHEG High School wrestling team had a good showing Saturday, taking second in the 10-team Gopher-Valley Conference tournament at St. Clair.
Fairmont/Martin County West won with 179 points and the Panthers totaled 166.5, best of any Gopher Conference squad. Maple River was third with 159, followed by USC with 156, LCWM/Nicollet 122, Medford 121.5, WEM/JWP 120, Blooming Prairie 107, Madelia/Truman 66 and St. Clair 29.
“Our team is really making progress so far in 2016,” said NRHEG coach Shawn Larson. “We wrestled well on Thursday and at this tournament. There are still areas in which we need to improve upon, but it is so much easier to do when we are seeing the effects of our hard work.”
The Panthers had four tournament champions, Cordell Peterson at 126 pounds, Zeke Erickson at 220 and Wyatt Fitterer at 285. Taking second were Bryce Okland and Trey Hoppe. Cole Staloch finished third, Brett Kubiatowicz and Karter Sletten fourth, Lucas Herrmann fifth.“Wyatt, Cordell, and Zeke have been wrestling well all year and we hope they keep it up,” said Larson. “Others that had good tournaments are Trey, Cole, and Bryce. These guys are really performing well, and I am excited to get them on the mat again next week.”
The Panthers handled WEM/JWP 41-31 in New Richland last Thursday, improving to 2-1 in conference dual meets and 3-4 overall.
Winners for the Panthers were Andrew Reich, 106; Kubiatowicz, 113; Peterson, 126; Staloch, 145; Okland, 152; Sletten, 170; Erickson, 220; and Fitterer, 285
“This was a match that we can be proud of,” said Larson. “We wrestled collectively better than we have all season. This match was a good mix of evenly matched teams and there was excitement right from the start as Andrew came from behind to earn a fall. This is a good way to start off a dual; it gets everybody fired-up to go out and compete. The bonus points earned were a big help as we got falls from Andrew Reich, Bryce, Karter, and Zeke. We had other good performances as well from Brett, Cordell, and Cole. Even in most of the matches we lost we were battling and in the end not giving as many extra points and getting some was the major difference in the outcome.”
The Panthers travel to Blue Earth tonight for a triangular.