Grapplers third at Stewartville tournament, beat GMLOK, fall at Decorah

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By Brady Ambrose
Caledonia Argus

The Caledonia/Spring Grove/Houston wrestling squad wrapped up a pretty busy week by placing third at the Stewartville tournament Saturday. The Warriors scored 136 team points to finish behind champion New Hampton, Iowa (188 points) and second place Rochester Mayo (175.5).

C/H/SG put five wrestlers in the finals, Hunter Hauser-Caldwell at 113, Dylan Lee at 120, Luke Werner at 132, Jacob Swindell at 152 and Blake Mauss at 220 pounds, and all five placed second.

“To go there and place third and have five in the finals is huge for us. The kids did a great job, and I think they are starting to realize what it’s all about. We wrestled real well. Some of the other teams maybe had a little more experience than us, but I know we were in better shape than most of the teams there,” Coach Dan Goergen said.

Hauser-Caldwell lost to Michael Otomo of Dover-Eyota 10-8 in the finals. “Hunter is coming off some sore ribs but he’s getting back in shape,” Goergen said. Dylan Lee lost to undefeated Leighton Gaul of New Hampton in the finals as Gaul improved to 27-0 with a technical fall win. Luke Werner lost to Denley Minske of Rochester Mayo 4-0 in the finals, but Goergen said that Werner wrestled well despite the loss. Werner has improved to 16-9 on the season.

Jacob Swindell lost to Brady Nelson of Rochester Mayo 11-9 in the finals despite having Nelson on his back for 5-10 seconds in the second period Goergen said. “We had him on his back, but we didn’t get the call.” At 220 pounds Blake Mauss was pinned by Zach Lorang of Rochester Mayo in the finals. “He looked like Goliath,” Goergen said. “It was a learning experience, and Blake is starting to realize how you have to wrestle some of these guys – they’re monsters.”

At 106 pounds Jacob Winjum beat Cordell Peterson of New Richland–H-E-G 10-2 for third place. Drew Stemper placed fifth at 126, beating Hunter Johnson of Stewartville 5-2. Dylan Stemper placed fourth, losing to Parker Hale of GMLOK.

At 170 pounds Mitchell Schmitz placed fifth, beating D-E’s Cord Anding by fall at the 2:30 mark. “All year he has had to face some really big guys,” Goergen said. “He can’t catch a break, but he keeps battling and scoring points. He keeps his head up, battles and is making progress.”

On Thursday night the Warriors beat GMLOK at home 43-30. In a match quickened by six forfeits, including a double-forfeit at 285 pounds, C/H/SG took an early lead when GMLOK forfeited at 106 and 113 and Hauser-Caldwell pinned Stephen Kassel to put the Warriors up 18-0.

Drew Stemper then beat Jace Bunne 5-2 for a 21-0 lead, but the Warriors forfeited at 132. GMLOK forfeited the 138 pound match, and Colin Reinhardt was pinned in the first period to make the score 27-12.

GMLOK then won their third match to cut the lead to 27-18, and GMLOK got even closer when senior Lucas Roe pinned Reece Lange with 1:35 left in the second period to tighten the score to 27-24.

But Schmitz got things back on track when the freshman pinned Brandon Turner with 25 seconds left in the first period at 170 pounds. GMLOK erased the lead at 182 when Wyatt Richardson pinned David Wagner just before the buzzer at the end of the second period, trimming the lead to 33-30 for C/H/SG. “Mitchell does his job and wrestles really well,” Goergen said. “He wrestles smart and to his ability.”

But the Warriors got a break when GMLOK forfeited at 195 pounds to push the lead back to 39-30. At 220 Mauss jumped out to a 5-0 lead after one period with a 3-point near fall at the end of the first period. He extended the lead to 7-0 with a reversal just seven seconds into the second frame. Another near fall pushed the lead to 10-0, and the freshman finished with an 11-2 win over Blake Benson to seal the deal for C/H/SG after both teams forfeited at 285 pounds. “He’s done a nice job. He’s one of those lighter heavyweights like we’ve had the last couple years but he’s realizing now he can wrestle with these big guys,” Goergen said.

On Tuesday the team opened the week with a trip south of the border to Decorah, Iowa. The Warriors won the first four matches of the night and six of the first seven to take a 32-6 lead, but the Vikings won the last seven matches to pull out a 40-32 win. Winjum, Hauser-Caldwell, Dylan Lee, Drew Stemper, Werner and Dylan Stemper all got wins for the Warriors.

The Warriors will travel to Dover-Eyota Thursday and then host St. Charles Jan. 25. “I’ve got lot of faith in the kids. They’re young – we graduated 12 kids from last year and these guys come in and are surprising some people.”

 

STEWARTVILLE TOURNAMENT

 

Team scores: New Hampton, IA. 188.0, Rochester Mayo 175.5, Caledonia 136.0, Dover-Eyota 126.0, New Richland-H-E-G 124.5, Stewartville 120.0, GMLOK 120.0, Rochester John Marshall 113.5, Rochester Century 64.0.

 

CALEDONIA CO-OP 43,
GMLOK 30

 

106: Winjum (C) won by forfeit; 113: Hauser-Caldwell (C) won by forfeit; 120: Lee (C) pinned Cassel 1:08; 126: Dr. Stemper (C) dec Bunne 5-2; 132: Olson (GMLOK) won by forfeit; 138: Dy. Stemper (C) won by forfeit; 145: Hale (GMLOK) pinned Reinhart 1:36; 152: Johnson (GMLOK) pinned Knutson 3:13; 160: Roe (GMLOK) pinned Lang 2:25; 170: Schmitz (C) pinned Turner 1:35; 182: Richardson (GMLOK) pinned Wagner 3:59; 195: Gugh (C) won by forfeit; 220: Mauss (C) maj. dec. Benson 11-2; 285: double forfeit.

 

DECORAH 40.0,
CALEDONIA CO-OP 32.0

 

106 Winjum, (C), tech. fall Hubka, (D), 6:00 20-3; 113 Hauser-Caldwell, (C), pinned Stortz, (D), 1:13; 120 Lee, (C), pinned Clark, DECO, 5:12; 126 Stemper, (C), pinned Tweten, (D), 3:43; 132 O`Shea, (D), forf.; 138 Werner, (C), pinned Folkedahl, (D), 2:53; 145 Stemper, (C), dec. Ritner, (D), 12-9; 152 Holkesvik, (D), pinned Knutson, (C), 1:36; 160 Suhr, (D), pinned Lange, (C), 3:14; 170 Kephart, (D), dec. Schmitz, (C), 6-0; 182 Hovey, (D), maj. dec. Wagner, (C), 9-1; 195 McCabe, (D), dec. Guth, (C), 9-8; 220 Hovden, (D), forf.; 285 Ashbacher, (D), forf.