WARRIORS SENDING THREE TO STATE

The Fulda/MCC Warrior wrestling club is sending three wrestlers to state tournament Kaston Clarke at 121, Quintin Lewis at 160, and Colby Kesteloot at Heavyweight. The boys will start their tournament matches Wednesday morning at the Grand Casino Arena, formerly the Xcel Energy Center.

Other place winners at the section 3A tournament February 21 included Luke Sweetman with 6th place at 114, and Brayden Gilb at 3rd place at 139. Teague Meyer placed 4th at 145, Lucas Kuball placed 3rd at 152, Jaxon Wendorff took 5th at 172, Luke Iverson got 6th at 189, and Vincent Bray took 3rd at 215.

Kaston Clarke’s championship match was an overdue rematch against Taylor Squires of the TMB Panthers. The last time these two met, Clarke lost 3-2. This time would play out a little differently as Clarke took advantage of Squires failed slide-by and defensively scored the takedown with a double leg. Clarke worked an armbar as the two went out of bounds and Clarke stayed on top working on a turn. During the second period, Clarke started on bottom and easily scored his escape, with the score now 4-1. Clarke maintained control of the wrists but couldn’t get anything going. After a restart, he got in on a single leg, taking Squires to the mat again. Clarke got right to work on the armbar and, catching Squires’ knuckles, turned him over and scored the fall, punching his ticket to the state tournament.

Quintin Lewis at 160 had a similar predicament with his opponent Evan Barthalamaus of the Jackson County Central Huskies. Quintin lost to Barthalamaus earlier in the season to a tight cradle, but Q’s redemption would take place in the semi-finals where he would meet the #2 seed. The match started off a little slow as Q got in on a single leg but Bart covered him up and waited for the stalemate. The first period ended with no score and Q would start bottom in the second period. He wasted no time working a switch, getting behind and scoring a 2-point reversal. Q tried everything to get a turn on Bart, but was unsuccessful. Bart eventually sat out and earned an escape, now 2-1 going into the third period. Q started on top and went right to work. Running legs with a power half, he stayed in control and rode out the period, winning the match. He earned second place after losing to the formidable Jackson Jenniges of Adrian, still punching that state ticket.

Colby Kesteloot’s path to section championship was all about pins. Colby pinned Dylan Mertens of Redwood Valley 17 seconds into the third period in the first round in a pigtail match. He then pinned Hank Heiling of Springfield in 1 minute and 8 seconds. In the semi-finals Colby pinned Griffin Smidt of Pipestone 1 minute and 25 seconds into the second period. Icing on the cake was pinning Garrett Penning of Adrian 1 minute and 1 second into the second period.

We are very hopeful that these boys have a successful state tournament this year.

Good Luck, Warriors!