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The Fulda Murray County Central Wrestling team, on December 28th and 29th, travelled to Fargo, North Dakota to take part in “The Rumble on the Red Wrestling Championships”. This is the largest sanctioned wrestling tournament in the country, with 22 mats running continuously for 3 days and hosting 1500 Varsity and JV wrestlers. Taking place in the Fargo dome with the wrestling mats spread out over the turf of the NDSU football field; it was truly impressive.
The Warriors entered 30 wrestlers into the tournament, 10 varsity attendants, and 20 JV attendants. It was impossible to watch every single match as the wrestlers were spread all over the place, but the coaches and the wrestlers made it look easy, travelling from mat to mat to cheer on and support their teammates as well as compete. Nick Henning and Cody Kramer took the helm, coaching the varsity grapplers as Clayton Hartle, Ryan Olsem, and John Klein did the coaching for the Junior varsity.
This tournament is considerably bigger than the Minnesota State tournament and the classes are not divided, so the competition is tough, to say the least. All of the Warrior wrestlers competed well and were exposed to some of the best wrestling in the Midwest.
On the Varsity side, Quintin Lewis and Aiden Lorenzen scored team points obtaining wins. Quintin Lewis had two preliminary matches just to make it on to the Championship bracket and won them both with a decision win over Warren Ritter of Grand Rapids and a pin over Ty White of Bemidji. “Q” went two and out in the championship and consolation bracket, but wrestled well.
Aiden Lorenzen at 130 lbs. won his first match in the consolation bracket with a 4-2 score over Maddox Slater of Mandan, then went two and out to finish the night.
On the junior varsity side of things, the wrestlers put a few more points on the board. Mason Kirchner at 98 pounds scored 12 team points with three pins by fall in the championship bracket and just missed the final rounds Thomas Pruitt won three matches in the consolation round and scored 9 team points.
Truman Olsem won his first match in the championship round and two matches in the consolation round. Scoring 9 team points Kaden Landsman, after winning his preliminary match, went on to win his first match in the championship bracket, but then lost his next three.
Hunter Reese at 133 won his first consolation match and scored 1 team point Lucas Kuball, after losing his first preliminary match, won 6 matches in a row all by pinfall for a total time of 2 minutes and 44 seconds, and lost his last match in consolation by a 7-4 decision, missing the podium, scoring 18 team points.
Keagan Wiekeraad at 145 won his first preliminary match over Alaric Wynia of the Warriors which is crazy considering the amount of wrestlers that two teammates would wrestle. Keagan went on to win his first consolation match and scored 6 team points.
Caleb Rosenbrook won his first Championship match at 152 with a 10-0 major decision over Chase Sears of Fargo South, then went two and out scoring 3 team points Weston Kruger also at 152, scored 12 team points winning his second prelim match then three by pinfall in the consolation.
Carson Lewis scored 31 team points for JV going undefeated in 5 matches in the championship bracket at 160 until the finals, where he fell to 2nd place, which is excellent.
Jaxon Wendorff at 172 won his first match in prelims then his second in the championship bracket scoring 8 team points.
The Warriors 215 lb. Vincent Bray won his first prelim match scoring 3 team points The Warriors, as a whole, did well. I highlighted the wins, which is unfair. There is so much talent on this team, and going to this tournament is daunting to say the least. Every wrestler at every level is wrestling himself more than his opponent, and sometimes just walking out on the mat can be tough.
The wins are thrilling, but the losses aren’t always heartbreaking. Competing to the best of their ability is what we’re looking for, according to the coaches, as well as helping the kids find their potential, their true potential. Wrestling is a hard sport and it’s always hard to hear you have potential, but every wrestler at every level has potential for more. This tournament really shows that, as state champions went down, and some of the best wrestlers didn’t even make the podium. Wrestling is a struggle and the training helps to deal with the struggle. The training isn’t easy because the struggle isn’t easy. There are so many life lessons these kids are learning, and it is so fun to watch these kids grow and learn and become better. All of them.
The Warriors have two home meets this week. On January 4 th they are in Slayton starting at 5 with a Quad. Against Minneota, Minnewaska, and Redwood Valley. On January 5 th they are in Fulda for a triangular against Fairmont/Martin County West, and Worthington.
