By Colin Staab and Keith Harner
The Northfield varsity wrestling team traveled to Lake City for an individual team tournament. Northfield finished with two champions, two second place finishers, one third place finish, two fourth place finishers, one fifth place finish and one sixth place finish.
Caley Graber had a great day at 107 pounds by defeating Rawson Sullivan from Winona by fall to put her in the championship match after she received a first round bye. Caley’s next match was a little tougher but that didn’t stop her, she won 6-0 over Jameson Priebe from Chatfield to take home gold.
Caden Staab had a great day starting with a fall over Benson Brunkow from Wabasha-Kellogg at 121 pounds. Caden didn’t stop there. He defeated Adrian Lopez-Ramirez from Lake City 12-3 to move on to the championship match where Caden went on to defeat the fifth ranked wrestler in class A Kaisen Johnson with seconds left on the clock 5-3 and win his bracket.
Charlie Johnson had a great tournament at 127 pounds. Johnson came out with a fall in the first match over Jaxon Meier from Westfield. Charlie had a tough loss against Hunter Polikowsky of Chatfield in his second match via a technical fall. Charlie bounced back to defeat Evan Noble of Medford by fall and advance to the third place match. Charlie defeated Jaxon Meier from Westfield again, but this time by a technical fall for third place.
Zane Engels had a great day of wrestling for the Raiders. The freshman started by defeating Tanner Milewski of Medford by fall at 139 pounds. Zane wrestled a close match against section one AAA foe Kellen Burger of Rochester Mayo resulting in a 3-2 victory to move him into the championship match. Zane wrestled a tough match against the third ranked wrestler in class A, Bolton Thesing of Dover-Eyota, resulting in a loss by fall for a second place finish.
Sam Harner wrestled four matches Saturday. First, he took down Robert Cushman of Wabasha-Kellogg 6-1. Next, he lost to sixth ranked Calder Sheehan by technical fall. Harner then battled Max Erickson 3-1. To advance to the third place match where Sam lost to Damon Bye 3-1 to take fourth place.
At 152 pounds, Jamison Baker took fourth place. He lost to Talen Rabe of Dover-Eyota by fall in his first match. Jamison then beat Winona’s Owen Allred to advance to the third place match where he lost again to Talen Rabe.
Colin Staab started off his day with a 7-5 overtime loss to Jackson Welsh of Dover-Eyota at 160 pounds. Staab won his first match on the backside over Bill Kester from Chatfield, but Colin lost to Rochester Mayo’s Carter Funk to put him in the fifth place match where Colin won by medical forfeit.
Ryan received a bye in the first round and then went on to defeat Westfield’s Alex Lea by fall to advance to the finals match where he took on the top ranked wrestler in class A, Chatfield’s Kail Schott. Kuyper wrestled hard losing 6-1 and taking second place at 189 pounds.
To round things off, Noah Ackerman took sixth place. After he lost by fall in his first match to Westfield wrestler Wyatt Arndt, he defeated Lucas Dykman from La Crescent-Hokah. Dover-Eyota wrestler Aiden Gasper pinned Ackerman setting Noah up for revenge against Arndt. Noah lost by fall resulting in a sixth place finish.
Northfield took third while only having 10 of the13 weight classes filled behind Chatfield and Dover-Eyota. The Raiders head to Mankato West on Thursday to take on the Scarlets and Scott West. On Saturday, they will wrestle in a dual tournament in Cannon Falls.
In other action this weekend at the 9th grade regional qualifier, Elijah Palmer took first at 160 pounds qualifying for the ninth grade state tournament next Saturday in Champlin Park. Drew Pribyl finished third at 114 pounds just shy of advancing. Northfield had nine wrestlers participate in the region qualifier held at Farmington High School.
