WARRIORS BATTLE AT THE RIVER RIOT

The FMCC Warriors braved treacherous roads to make the trip to Redwood Falls early Friday afternoon arriving well before dark to prepare for the wrestling tournament that would begin on Saturday. The weather and road conditions caused the tournament to cancel Fridays events and move everything to Saturday to allow ample time for wrestlers to arrive.

They have close to 50,000 square feet of floor space for 10 wrestling mats. With 35 Wrestling teams, their coaches and spectators you couldn’t go anywhere without cheering and referees whistles. Each wrestler would get at least two matches, so the Warriors alone would book over 75 matches. The young Warrior wrestling team fared well compared to recent years and made 31st out of 35 teams with 27.5 total points.

Teague Meyer was first up for the Warriors, wrestling at 120lbs. and taking a loss in the first round putting him into the consolation bracket which was split in two for Consolation A and B brackets. So Meyer essentially won his consolation bracket B with a technical fall against Eli Viskocil of Tri-City United Montgomery MN. Meyers 1st match in the championship round against Ryan Moelder of St. Peter went 4 min 54 sec. and Meyer fell to a pin. Meyers 2nd match against Jack Pesta from Sartell-St. Stephen went 5 minutes and this time Meyer scored the pinfall and 6.5 team points.

The 126lb. bracket had Torrin Clarke who fell to a pin fall in 1:15 in the 1st round in the championship bracket to Tegan Kral from New Ulm. Clarke received byes in the first two rounds of consolation and took on Aiden Holmberg from Windom/Mountain Lake. Clarke went the distance yet came up short with an 8-1 decision.

Denver Ash, weighing in at 138, had a championship 1st round bye. Then in the 2nd round Ash pulled Edwyn Gonzalez from ACGC and punched his ticket to the consolation round with a 11-4 loss by decision. Troy Doroff of Edina succumbed to the pinning procedure of Ash in the 2nd consolation round, but Sam Drietz of Canby was too much for our Denver Ash this day as he fell by with 15 sec. left in the 2nd period.

Aiden Lorenzen, in the 145lb. bracket, earned 4 team points and started out the day against Noah Holmberg of Windom/ Mountain Lake, winning with an 8-7 decision in the championship 1st round. The second round didn’t fare as well for Aiden as Davin Rose of MAHACA pinned him in :58 seconds pushing Lorenzen to the consolation bracket. The second consolation round Lorenzen started picking up speed again winning the match by a 15-4 major decision over Hunter Conrad of Faribault. In the 3rd consolation round Lorenzen took on Kaden Brooks of Sartell/St. Stephen and took a fall with 45 seconds left in the 2nd period.

Quintin Lewis at 145 lbs. got to the second round of his championship bracket through Evan Wiebers of Mankato West pinning him with :10 sec. left in the 2nd period. The second round Lewis found Harold Born of St. Peter who pinned Lewis in the 1st period pushing Lewis to the Consolation bracket where the competition remained stiff losing to Brant Lemieux of Tri-City United by pinfall in the 1st period.

Carter Benda wrestled awesome until he suffered an ankle injury causing him to forfeit the match and leave the tournament.

Carson Klein earned 2 team points at 170 with some excellent wrestling and stayed in good position for 3 periods against Joseph Connor of St. Peter winning in a 4-0 decision. In the 2nd round Carson had Chas Irlbeck of Wabasso and lost by pinfall in the third period. Irlbeck would go on to win 2nd place in the tournament. Competition stayed above Kleins current skill level in the 2nd round of consolation losing in a 7-1 decision to Aaron Jones of KMS.

Colby Kesteloot, wrestling at 220 had a very good day despite the scoreboard. Even though he lost both matches he did push them both to a decision against upper classmen. Colbys 1st match in the championship bracket was Owen Kidrowski of KMS and Colby held him to an 8-0 major decision. Colby had byes in the 1st 2 rounds of the Consolation bracket then had senior Camden Rhodes of Edina and nearly came from behind to win, but fell short losin in an 8-5 decision.

Rylan Klein, earning 8 team points in the 285lb weight, lost in the 1st round to Evan Thompson of New Ulm by pinfall in the 2nd period. Rylan found his groove in Consolation going 3-0 with 3 consecutive pins. First against Colby Schwichtenberg of Fairmont Martin County West 30 seconds into the second period. Then Andrew Cowden didn’t have a prayer as Klein pinned him in 20 seconds. Lastly, to win his consolation bracket ,Klein got deep double unders and Zach Benson of Blue Earth Area sacrificed his back to the mat with 20 seconds left in the 1st period.

With 9 of 24 wrestlers competing in the varsity tournament one of the best things about the Redwood River Riot is the Junior Varsity Tournament of which the Warriors entered 15 wrestlers, who all competed well with many place winners. All of the brackets were 4 man brackets so each wrestler was guaranteed to get at least 3 matches.

Dane Hansen, in the 81-84 lb bracket, earned 2nd place and 13 team points with a major decision and a pin.

Mason Kirchner, in the 84-86 lb bracket, earned 2nd place and 12 points with a decision and a pin.

Kaston Clarke, in the 90-93 lb bracket, earned 1st place and 20 team points with 3 pins.

Thomas Pruitt earned 3rd place and 9 team points in the 111112lb. bracket with 1 pin.

Kaden Landsman, in the 113lb. weight bracket, earned 3rd place and 7 team points with a decision.

Brayden Gilb, in the 113-117 lb. bracket, earned 2nd place and 13 team points with a major decision and a pin.

Caleb Rosenbrook earned 1st place and 20 team points in the 139-140lb. bracket with 3 pins.

Carson Lewis earned 3rd place and 9 team points in the 145153lb. bracket with a pin.

Keagan Wiekeraad and Cain Carlson in the 152-156lb. and 153-159lb. brackets, both earned 4 team points for 4th place.

Jaxon Wendorff earned 3rd place and 9 team points in the 157-160lb. bracket with a pin.

Weston Kruger, in the 177183lb. bracket, earned 3rd place and 9 team points with a pin.

Lucas Kuball in the 132-136 lb. bracket earned 2nd place and 14 team points with 2 pins.

Noah Mathiowetz in the 143148lb. bracket earned 3rd place and 7 team points with a decision.

Luke Iverson earned 1st place and 18 team points in the 159162lb. bracket with 2 pins and a decision.

Carson Klein