Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas at Home

The saying goes there's no place like home for the holidays. Central wrestlers would agree with that statement as they welcomed Fridley and Mpls. Washburn to town on Tues. night. Washburn being a section opponent was a very important match for Central to come away victorious.
After watching the JV wrestlers go out and win some matches prior to wrestling Fridley, the varsity took aim at the Tigers. Josh Hendel wrestled an extremely good match but got caught going to the well one too many times and was pinned, however, that match was a good indicator of how close Josh is to really becoming and all around great wrestler. Following a couple of forfeit wins, the Raiders sent out Austin Kidrowski to get a win and that he did with an impressive display against a senior wrestler getting a fall in the 2nd period. A couple more forfeit wins followed and a couple of losses that were not indicators of the wrestlers' abilities at 171,189 brought Adam George to the mat to take a forfeit. Finally, Andrew Schmieg stepped on the mat and gave up a few pounds to his opponent, however, Andrew was able to get a nice lead and had his opponent on the ropes. However, one wrong move especially in a HWT match can be costly and it was as Andrew was pinned midway through the 2nd period. Final score in favor of the Raiders was 36-24 to move them to 7-2 on the season. Congratulations also go to Brady Buckentine and Tim Miller for posting their first career wins in wrestling in the JV portion.
In the 2nd match for the Raiders, it was much like the first, a string of forfeits gave the Raiders some points to start but the wrestling was the most important matter being looked at. Andrew Leonhardt started off the meet with a commanding JV win by fall and Zach Thon picked up his first career victory with a 6-2 win. Varsity wrestlers were looking for some wins also as Tim Swanson moved up 2 normal weights to get a pin in the 2nd and brother and fellow captain Tim picked up a first period fall as well. Cole Joos lost a maj. dec. after coming back off IR and Tim Kloempken wrestled a much improved match and got a pin at 171. Tony Hegseth saw the varsity mat and was locked in a tight match before losing by fall and Andrew Schmieg again showed how close HWT matches can be by letting a lead slip away and was pinned in the 3rd. Team Raider wins again 42-16 to move to 8-2 on the season.
"Overall it was a good night for the Raiders, we had a chance to wrestle in front of our fans who came out in impressive numbers. We had our youth wrestlers in the crowd to watch and we were able to get a lot of our younger/inexperienced kids some mat time they really need both at varsity and JV levels. We needed to contest every match that was wrestled throughout the night, we did that in some spots and in others we were very sloppy and not ready mentally to step on the mat. Those are things that will have to be improved upon in the practice room before we can start making some strides in our section" explained Coach Fox. "We want to thank everyone for coming out and we hope to see them in Jan. at some very big home meets that we will have. We will definitely need a fired up crowd to help us". Central Wrestling returns to the mat on Jan. 7th in Howard Lake and Sat. Jan. 9th is the annual Central wrestling tournament at the high school. Start time is 10 a.m. Happy H0lidays from the Central Wrestling Family to you and yours.

9th grade League Results

Central entered their first dual meet tournament of the season at the 9th grade league level on Mon. wrestling New Prague and Apple Valley. Team Raider came home with and 0-2 record but also gained some experience against opponents that we will see again later in the season. With only have 10 available bodies to wrestle that made the task a little daunting, but the kids dug in their heels and wrestled hard to keep the New Prague match close and a victory in one match would have changed the score to the positive side for Central. Cody Wigfield started the scoring off for Central with a pin and Cody Meisinger got a forfeit followed by a Grant Mueller major dec. and Alex Finney win gave the Raiders some hope but a couple forfeits cost the Raiders and New Prague won the dual.
Apple Valley is rated #2 in the country for a reason and their 9th grade team showed why they are a powerhouse program. Central went out and wrestled hard against the Eagles and were able to get some wins and keep matches close. Josh Lord continues to impress with a 7-5 win, Alex Finney and Justin Govrik got pins for the Raiders and Tim Miller (wrestling for his first match ever) and Jordan Stevens, wrestled more experienced opponents and were able to lose close matches. Our 9th grade kids wrestled extremely hard and now have to get back to the practice room to continue working on things to improve. Thanks to the fans who traveled to watch our duals in Belle Plaine. Next 9th grade meet is at Central on Jan. 11, 2010.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

GSL Quad

If you like some tight dual wrestling meets, GSL was where you wanted to be on Fri. night. Central ventured into GSL sporting a 3-2 record and looking for more wins against 3 teams that were good matchups for them.
The Raiders started off the night with Mont. Lons./LeCenter in a non-conference dual. Even though both Central and MLLC had a couple of forfeits in the lineup, the match still came down to the end with the Raiders winning a 37-34 decision. Josh Hendel got the Raiders off to a nice start with a Tech. Fall at 103 and Justin Stevens followed a loss with an impressive win at 119 over the Coyotes best lower weight wrestler. After a forfeit and a 4-3 loss at 125, the Raiders reeled off 22 straight points helped by 2 forfeits, a pin by Tyler Swanson and a major decision by Austin Kidrowski. With a couple of injuries still healing Central forfeited a weight and lost by fall, when Tim Kloempken stepped on the mat to try and seal the meet for Central, he did just that with a pin at 189 lbs. and the meet was in the books in the win column.
Following MLLC, Central faced Mound-Westonka whom the Raiders have beaten the previous 2 seasons. Things have remained the same as Central jumped out to a commanding lead winning 7 of the first 8 matches and taking a commanding 35-3 lead, Mounds strength in the final 6 matches took it to the Central upper weights and made it a 35-30 score, but Andrew Schmiegs win at HWT. sealed the match and the Raiders were victorious once again 41-30. Josh Hendel again started off the match with big points getting a pin and Grant Mueller, Austin Kidrowski, Josh Lord, Justin Stevens picked up 6 point wins for Central while the Swanson duo notched nice wins over solid opponents.
With 2 victories in hand, Team Raider moved to the rivalry matchup of the night with GSL. GSL had handed the Raiders an embarrassing loss last season and Central was looking to defeat the Panthers on their home mat. Things did not start off as well this time for Central as the starting Josh boys at 103 and 112 ran into some tough opponents and Central was in a hole 12-0. Two forfeits to Stevens and Dustin Hale who had lost 2 close matches during the night knotted the score at 12-12.Captain Tim Swanson stepped on the mat needing to help the Raiders score and he did just that with a 3rd period pin. Grant Mueller then dropped a tough 9-4 decision to a solid wrestler from GSL to make the team score 18-15. Kidrowski kept rolling along with a forfeit and James Lord picked up a very big pin at 145 to increase the lead to 30-15. Tyler Swanson and Zach Thon both stepped in to wrestle to of GSL's better opponents and gave good battles to help save some team points and it was 30-26. Central then forfeited and Team Raider was down 32-30. After a not so impressive performance in the first two dual meets, the Raiders upper weights were now faced with the challenge of bringing home a victory. Tim Kloempken started the climb back with a 4-1 win to put Central back in the lead 33-32. Tyson Tellers then stepped on the mat and delivered a huge 9-4 win over a 16 lb. larger opponent to make the score 36-32. With a raucous crowd of Raider fans getting ready to celebrate, Jordan Stevens made things interesting falling behind 9-1 in the 3rd period, a GSL win by this margin would have meant a tie with the Raiders still claiming victory. But Stevens managed to find a nice little sneak-thru from the bottom and put his opponent to his back and the referee hit the mat sending the Central Wrestling family into a frenzy.
"This team is working extremely hard and learning how to win matches with different people stepping up and contributing and giving us a lift. While we still have a lot of things to work on, our kids are still fairly young at varsity level competition but the growth they are seeing and learning to work for and with each other will make us a much better team when the really important matches come in Jan. and Feb." said Coach Fox.
Team Raider now stands at 6-2 with two home duals scheduled for Tues. night at 5:00 and 7:45. We invite everyone to come and see the Central Wrestlers at their home events to help cheer us on.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Rockford Dual

Great Weekend
It was Central's first outing of the season with team competition this past weekend and it did not disappoint. Our coaches are extremely proud of the kids with the work they did on Fri. and Sat. and also the parents that made the trip to help support us.We may have lost to Rockford on Fri. night, but we gained a lot of respect for the way we were wrestling. Justin Stevens, Tim Swanson, Austin Kidrowski and Adam Goerge won their matches by fall or point spreads.Grant Mueller and Dustin Hale received forfeits to help the Raiders along, but in the end too many trips to our backs did the Raiders in. Final Score was 39-30. At the JV level, not many matches were wrestled, but Jared Wickenhauser picked up a nice victory over a more experienced opponent and Justin Govrik wrestled well in only his second career meet.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Weekend Wrestling is full

Our dual meet schedule kicks into high gear this weekend with 5 matches that will give us a good sense of where our team stands right now. We plan on having a close to full lineup all weekend and will be tested by teams like Rockford on Fri. night and Eden Prairie, Trinity and Ogilvie on Saturday (opponents not yet scheduled).
We are hoping to wrestle Rockford on Fri. night with a little better showing than we had last year and by all accounts that should be a very good dual for us. We both match up well with each other so it may be some new guys who will make the difference in victory or defeat. This dual will start at 6:00 on Fri. and will have very little JV matches so get their early for an earlier start time due to both teams having early mornings on Sat.
On Sat. following what we hope to be some good JV victories in their portion of the tournament, our team will try to improve on their 3rd place finish from last year's Trinity tournament. Once again, our lineup should be close to full and we'll be trying to contest all 14 weights as hard as we can.
Please try to make it for both rounds of the tournament on Sat. to watch all our wrestlers in their pursuit of victories. JV will start at 8:30 approx. and varsity should start at 10:15. See you at the mat and GO RAIDERS!!

9th grade League Results

Individual tournament starts off 9th Grade League season:
Our 9th grade league wrestlers ventured to Belle Plaine this past Mon. and competed against wrestlers from 4 other programs and came home with some promising results.
Alex Finney and Josh Lord both came away with 2 wins on the day and Cody Meisinger with a win as well and all the kids wrestled extremely well according to coaches Stoks and Michels. Alex, Josh and Cody should be congratulated on their first career wins as high school level wrestlers.
Justin Govrik, Jared Wickenhauser and Cody Wigfield wrestled well on the day and ran into some good competition but also lost close matches which is a good thing for them to be doing. So we had an excellent day in our first meet of competition at this level.

Results and Upcoming Events

Fairbault Tournament kicks off season:
Our season got off to a good start at Fairbault last weekend with a lot of matches wrestled and positive results coming from the wrestlers. Our coaching staff is very encouraged by our wrestling we did.
Varsity level was a little short staffed with some wrestlers wrestling at JV level due to inexperience. But our 8 wrestlers were very tough in their weights. This was a very tough tournament to start the season against many teams either 1 or 2 classes above us.
Justin Stevens managed a second place finish in the tournament and lost a tight 4-3 match in the finals against a good wrestler from Kasson. Justin did a great job of scoring team points and getting bonus points also.
Tim Swanson placed 4th in arguably the toughest bracket in the tournament. Good things were seen from Tim and we hope to continue seeing them in the future.
Tyler Swanson placed 4th also and showed some signs of good leadership throughout the tournament and wrestling hard-nosed matches in the process. Tyler will improve on these placings as the year progresses.
Tyson Tellers was probably the surprise of the tournament, Tyson placed 5th in his first varsity action and scored and exciting 5-4 win in his final match. Giving up some weight is tough in his position, but he also is very smart with his wrestling.
Dustin Hale, Austin Kidrowski, and Grant Mueller each contributed a victory on the day but were unable to make it to the placing rounds and Cole Joos lost 2 hard fought matches in his first action of the year.
Junior Varsity -Our Junior Varsity had very good success on the day. 5 wrestlers were undefeated on the day. Adam George, Andrew Schmieg, Jordan Stevens, James Lord and Cody Wigfield all were undefeated on the day and showed very good promise and discipline according to coaches Clark and Mackenthun. Congratulations also go out to Jared Wickenhauser on his first ever wrestling victory. While our other kids didn't win matches, they gained valuable experience and once again, managed to lose a lot of matches by close margins which is a great sign of growth from the previous year.
Thank you to all the fans who came to the tournament to cheer us on and we hope to have more as the year progresses.