Wreslters take second at Beulah Miner Tournament
By Frank Fish
Assistant Coach
Watford City varsity wrestlers went 0 for 1 in dual action and took second place at the Beulah Tournament this last week.
This week, the Wolves will be at Beulah for a dual match on Thursday, and then host the Watford City FFA Multiple on Saturday.
Williston 54, Watford City 24
On Tuesday night the Wolves took on the No. 4 ranked Williston Coyotes in Williston. Williston is always loaded with talented wrestlers and this year is no exception. The match started at 171 pounds with Kalin Mogen taking on Jacob Sargent. Mogen ended up on an unusual side of a pin. He was pinned by Sargent in 5:06. Sargent finished third over the weekend at the Miles City Cowboy Invitational.
Branden Meuth, who is still recovering from a bad bout of the flu before Christmas, lost a real tough 7-6 match with Adam Steven at 189 pounds.
Williston won the next two matches by forfeit and extended their lead to 21-0. In the next match, the Wolves lost by fall.
At 103 pounds, eighth grader Coleton Jore was pinned by Sammy Maisey in 2:36. Maisey is currently ranked in the top 8 in Class A.
The Wolves edged the score up a little with wins from Jake Scott at 112 pounds and Clay Jorgenson at 119 pounds. Scott pinned Royce Horswill in 2:37 and Jorgenson won by forfeit.
The Coyotes led by 27-12 at the time and kept it going with two more pins and a forfeit.
Carson Harwig was pinned by Paul Michaelson at 125 pounds in 52 seconds, Trevor Kalberer was pinned in 3:07 by Kirby Kain at 130 pounds, and Eddie Maisey won by forfeit at 135 pounds. All three Williston wrestlers are ranked either No. 1 or 2 in the latest State Class A poll.
Jake Thomas got the Wolves six more points with a pin over Markus Noeske in 56 seconds at 140 pounds.
Austin Garmann was pinned by Joe Rice in 1:13 at 145 pounds.
Karson Knudtson got the last points for the Wolves with a pin over Derrick Wrolson in 2:30 at 152 pounds.
One of the best matches of the night was at 160 pounds where Nolan Kalberer was decisioned by Alfredo Rosales 7-3 to give the Coyotes a 54 to 24 win over the Wolves.
There were some great matches from the younger Watford City wrestlers as well.
In exhibition matches, Dakota Garmann lost 6-5 to Austin Luther, Logan Gumke pinned Kurdt Kramer in 5:28, Jade Hepper was pinned by Hayden Rossol in 2:52, Keegan Thompson pinned Parker Landro in 1:51, Clay Billing pinned Kyle Edwards in 1:03, Lane Wold was pinned by Austin Luther in 1:08, Jade Hepper decisioned Kurdt Kramer 12-4, Logan Gumke lost to Hayden Rosol 4-3, Omar Laris decisioned Austin Luther 7-2 and Kye Bolken lost to Wyatt Fretheim 7-3.
Wolves take second at Beulah Miner Tournament
The wrestlers finished in second place in last weekend’s Beulah Miner Tournament with 142 points. The tournament did not have a lot of wrestlers or teams, but the quality was definitely abundant.
The Bismarck Demons, the No. 1 team in Class A won the tournament with 226 points. Bismarck St. Mary’s was third with 131.5 points, followed by Beulah with 76, Bismarck JV with 65 and Standing Rock with 49. Teams from Mandan, Dickinson, Bowman and Beach were scheduled to compete, but could not make it because of the road conditions.
The Wolves only had 10 wrestlers entered in the varsity division of the tournament. Other members of the squad were in Minot taking part in the State Junior High Tournament. The junior high team placed third in that tournament.
At Beulah, Jake Scott place third at 112 pounds, while Isaac Laris won the 119-pound class with a 14-0 major decision over Alex Krebs, Beulah, in the finals.
Joe Nelson finished third at 125 with a pin in 2:08 over Branden Renner from Bismarck St. Mary’s in the third place match, and Trevor Kalberer placed third as well, with a 7-6 decision over Ty Horning from Beulah.
Brady Lund won the 135-pound weight class with a 14-5 decision over Dustin Brendel, Bismarck, in the final match. Brendel was the 125-pound Class A State Champion in 2009.
Jake Thomas placed second losing to Joe Schumacher, a three-time State A Champion, in the finals 8-0.
Austin Garmann placed third at 145 pounds winning a forfeit from Josh Bitz.
Karson Knudtson placed fourth at 152 pounds in the toughest weight class in the tournament. Knudtson was defeated by the No. 2 wrestler in Class A, Ethan Dockter, Bismarck 20-9. He lost the third place match 6-5 to Zach Schuchard, another rated wrestler from Bismarck.
Nolan Kalberer made it to the finals at 160 pounds by decisioning Gauge Harrison, Standing Rock, before losing to Kip Janguala, again No. 1 in Class A, by fall in 1:16 in the finals.
Kalin Mogen avenged an earlier loss to Isaiah Krebs, Beulah, in the finals with a 15-10 decision.
The tournament was an outstanding outing for the Wolves. All those that competed were tested, and will be able to use the weekend’s matches to build on for the remainder of the season.