Knight Wrestlers Place 2nd at Big Bear

By Craig Olson - Cass Lake, MN

The second place Knights!  PHOTO by TAMMIE OLSON PHOTOGRAPHY

The West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville wrestling team placed second at the Big Bear Invitational in Cass Lake over the weekend, scoring 152.5 points.  Hutchinson won the team title with 168.5 points and Lakeville North was third with 141.4 points.
“Going into this tournament we knew we had a chance to win this tournament,” said Head Coach Brandon Gruchow of the Knights.  “We knew we needed to make a change from last weekend and do a better job in embracing the grind of a tournament and wrestling as a team even though it is an individual tournament. The boys wrestled well and fought hard during their matches on Friday and Saturday.  They pushed themselves to the next level not only for themselves but for their team.  This was exactly the response we were hoping for after last weekends home tournament, where we ended up taking third place.  We knew it was going to be a grind of a tournament and we focused on embracing the grind.  We also made it a goal and as coaches tried to help the wrestlers take the focus out of winning and losing and more focus on going out and wrestling the best we possibly could.  We didn't quite get to the top of the list of teams but we ended up with second place.  We had a lot of great performances by individuals throughout the weekend and I am proud of these boys for their accomplishments.  However, we know we had a chance at number one and that will help give us a little extra push during our practices before our next competition which is a Quad in Staples January 2.”
WCA/A/BE crowned two champions at Big Bear.  They were Jake Nohre (113) and Hunter Fick (195).  Nohre won by fall (1:58) over Bo Knudson of Virginia in his first round match; won a major decision (9-1) over Darion Anderson of Pequot Lakes/Pine River/Backus in the second round; won by technical fall (16-0) over Evan Carr of Zimmerman in the quarterfinals; recorded a fall (3:30) over Lucas Womack of Albany in his semifinal match; and won by major decision (12-3) over Dasin Mateski of Hutchinson in the finals.
Fick started the tournament with a fall (0:39) over Hunter Wilcowski of Blackduck/Cass Lake-Bena; won by injury default (5:19) over Garrett Pemelton of DGF in the quarterfinals; won by decision (3-1) over Jackson Dunnell of Lakeville North in the semifinals; and won by decision (7-4) over Tristan Palmer of United North Central in the championship match.
Royal Crow (160) wrestled to a third place finish, winning a 7-3 decision over Jake Knettel of Holdingford in round one, beating Blake Skogstad of Roseau 11-6 in round two, winning a 5-0 decision over Nate Francis of Detroit Lakes in his quarterfinal match, losing in the semifinals 11-3 to Ethan Kimber of Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale and bouncing back to claim third place with a 16-4 win over Derek Helgoe of Big Lake.
Anthony Miller (220) also finished third in his match, recording a fall (0:24) over Joseph Baker of Wadena-Deer Creek in the first round; beating Jacob Bittmann of Park Rapids Area by fall (0:52) in the second round; losing to Tanner Templin of Blackduck/Cass Lake-Bena in the quarterfinals; winning by injury default over Jacob Sperr of Morris Area, recording a 3-2 decision over Matt Hennes of Willmar, beating Dana Berg of Barnesville 3-1 and then taking his third place match with a 3-1 overtime decision over Alan Blast of Aitkin.
Drake Swanson claimed fourth place at 106, scoring 18 points for the Knights and Jake Larkin (145) came in seventh, scoring ten points.
Gruchow concluded, “Two years ago we were in last place.  We had no one make it to the second day.  I remember we woke the kids up extra early went to the tournament and had a two hour practice before the tournament even started....this is the same group of kids that were at the bottom and worked their way up to the top.  Their willingness to work hard, sacrifice, and doing the extra is definitely paying off.”