Knight Wrestlers Earn Pair of Section 6A Wins

The West Central Area Knights faced Barnesville and Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale on Thursday night in a triangular in Bertha.
“There was a little more pressure going into tonight’s tri against two great section 6A teams,” commented Head Coach Brandon Gruchow.  “Both teams have quite a few talented individual wrestlers and we knew we had to wrestle well to beat both teams.  The boys did a great job staying focused and getting prepared one dual at a time and one match at a time.  Most of them did their jobs and we are very pleased to see their continuous efforts pay-off.”
The Knights beat the Trojans 48-30 and defeated B-H/V 52-18.
“Drake Swanson earned wrestler of the match tonight, well deserved after pinning both of his opponents,” noted Gruchow.  “Drake has been putting in the time doing the extra work all summer and reaping the benefits.” 
Jake Nohre, Kyle Mickelsen, Jake Larkin, Royal Crow, and Hunter Fick each posted two more wins to their records on Thursday night.  Chris Onstad, Levi Larkin, Koel Seifert, Buzz Miller, and Sid Kamrath each added a win to their records as well.   
“We know that both teams rosters will most likely change by the next time we wrestle them,” said Coach Gruchow.  “And it’s likely that they will only get tougher.  It was an uplifting night; being able to go out and get both wins was exactly what we wanted to do.  We know we have to stay after it in the practice room, clean up our techniques, and keep healthy to do it again at the end of the season.”
It was a little tougher night for the Jv/Jr. High wrestlers.  “There were also fewer matches so not all of the boys got a match,” reported Gruchow.  “They wrestled well but had some unfortunate turn of events in many of the matches resulting in 5 losses.  Hunter Hanson earned the sole win for the JV/J.H. team.”
Austin Aufdenkamp 0-2, Kaleb Getz 0-1, Jared Lock 0-1, Hunter Hanson 1-0, Jannis Knothe 0-1.

SCORING SUMMARY:

West Central Area 52, Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale 18

SCORING SUMMARY:

West Central Area/Ashby/Evansville 48, Barnesville 30