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Warrior wrestler Willie Krage started things off for the Caledonia/Houston/Spring Grove wrestling team in the Section 1AA quarterfinals held in Caledonia last Thursday night. The Warriors’ 103 and 112 pounders both recorded pins against GMLOK to help jump start their team to a 48-22 win over the Bulldogs. Photo by Zach Thomas
The Caledonia/Houston/Spring Grove wrestling team achieved one of its goals this year to reach the section team tournament at Rochester. A strong 48-22 performance against rival Grand Meadow/Leroy-Ostrander/Kingsland (GMLOK) propelled the Warriors on to face Kasson-Mantorville in the semi-finals where they lost 48-15 to the eventual Section 1AA champion Saturday afternoon.
By Tom Murphy
Caledonia Argus
The Caledonia/Houston/Spring Grove wrestling team achieved one of its goals this year to reach the section team tournament at Rochester. A strong 48-22 performance against rival Grand Meadow/Leroy-Ostrander/Kingsland (GMLOK) propelled the Warriors on to face Kasson-Mantorville in the semi-finals where they lost 48-15 to the eventual Section 1AA champion Saturday afternoon.
“We handled GMLOK pretty well,” said coach Roger Knutson of his third-seeded club. “We beat them by only a point on the road in January. They had to be coming in here thinking they could win,” he said.
“Troy King and Willie Krage went out and got first period pins and that lead put us into the right frame of mind. For GMLOK, it meant they could not put a string of victories together at the end of the meet and win,” Knutson said. “We challenged Troy and Willie to get those pins and they did.” Both wrestlers recorded their falls in less than a minute.
Also benefiting the Warriors is winning a flip of the coin at the start of the meet that would determine who put a wrestler on the mat first. That meant CHS could choose the match ups it wanted. “Our wrestlers then went out there and did their job,” the coach said.
Knutson also noted the pin by Casey Stemper at 189 pounds. “GMLOK had to believe it could win this match but Casey turned his lead into a fall and it sealed the win,” he said. Lyndon Becker and Connor McCormick won by falls. Dan Wermager and Austin Goergen won by decision. Ryan Pitts and Tyler Krage won by forfeit.
Warrior wrestler Troy King started things off for the Caledonia/Houston/Spring Grove wrestling team in the Section 1AA quarterfinals held in Caledonia last Thursday night. The Warriors’ 103 and 112 pounders both recorded pins against GMLOK to help jump start their team to a 48-22 win over the Bulldogs. Photo by Zach Thomas
Warriors fall to K-M
The Warriors went to Rochester on Saturday for the semi-finals of the team tournament and faced second seed Kasson-Mantorville. It was a 49-15 loss for the Warriors as Connor McCormick and Troy Frank won by falls and Lyndon Becker won by decision.
“We won three matches but lost another three matches by one point. We did well, especially when you consider those three one point losses. If you were to tell us that we would win six matches with the young team we have, it would have been something. The score may have been one-sided but it did not reflect the competitive performance of the team,” Knutson said. Tanner Benson, Shane Loken, and Austin Goergen had the one-point losses.
The Warriors finished the season with a 12-4 record. K-M, the fourth ranked team in the state, beat third ranked Plainview-Elgin-Millville 36-16 for the section team championship.
Section individual tourney is Friday, Saturday
This weekend the focus for the Caledonia/Houston/Spring Grove wrestlers will be on the Section 1AA Individual Tournament where two wrestlers in each weight class from the 11 teams in Section 1AA will advance to the state tournament.
“Our wrestlers’ concentration will shift from getting team points to individual accomplishments for the next two weeks,” coach Roger Knutson said.
“We’ll be fine tuning what we do and go hard on Monday and taper down to Friday with the goal of being mentally and physically prepared,” he said. This weekend will be only the second time since mid-January that the entire team will be wrestling.
All events will be held at the Taylor Arena of the Mayo Civic Center on Friday and Saturday. The first round starts at noon followed by the quarter-finals at 2 p.m. Wrestlebacks will be held at 4 p.m. followed by the consolation quarter-finals at 5 p.m.
On Saturday the championship semi-finals will be held at 11 a.m. and the consolation semi-finals will be at 1:30 p.m. At 4 p.m. fifth place matches will be held. At 5 p.m. the championship and third place matches will be held. True second place matches will follow at 7:30 p.m.
Seeding will occur at Wednesday evening.
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