On Thursday Feb. 16, the PEM wrestling team picked up their 15th win of the season, as they defeated LARP to move into the Section 1AA semifinals. The Bulldogs had just defeated LARP two weeks earlier in a regular season conference meet, but this time the Screamin’ Eagles adjusted their line-up significantly. In fact, while the Bulldogs line-up remained virtually unchanged, only 3 PEM wrestlers wrestled against the same opponent that they faced in the first match-up.
At 106, Cael Marx was one of the Bulldogs who did face the same opponent as the previous dual. In the first dual, Marx won with a first period fall, but on this night, Marx ended the first period down 2-1, and needed to build his lead back up to score a 9-5 decision. At 113, Garrett Olson wrestled a new opponent and was able to control most of the match and pick up a 5-1 decision, making the team score 6-0 in favor of the Bulldogs. Then at 120, Nick Miller scored the Bulldogs first pin of the night making the score 12-0 PEM. LARP got on the scoreboard at 126 with a 2nd period fall and cut the PEM lead in half making the team score 12-6. Senior 132, Reed DeFrang, wrestling for the final time in the PEM gymnasium, quickly got the points back, getting a fall of his own, stretching the Bulldog lead back to 12 points. While the lead was encouraging, LARP still had many good wrestlers waiting to take the mat. At 138, in a battle of seniors, PEMs Grant Rubin was able to hold Xavier Riser to a 3 point decision, keeping the Bulldog lead at 18-9. In one of the evening’s pivotal toss-up matches at 145, PEM’s Carter Marx fought back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period, with 2 takedowns. Marx’s final takedown came with 1 second left in the match giving him a 5-4 victory and extending the PEM lead to 21-9. At 152, LARP would get 6 points back with a 2nd period pin, closing the gap to 21-15 and their best wrestler about to take the mat next.
In what was easily the premier match of the evening at 160, PEM’s Dustin Dittrich faced off against LARP’s always exciting senior, McCoy Tekautz, a state place-winner last season and 2x state entrant, currently ranked #2 in MN. Despite giving up the first takedown, it was clear from the beginning that Dittrich was there to battle, getting the escape and closing the first period down 2-1. In the 2nd, Dittrich was awarded an escape point to tie the match at 2-2, and while no more scoring happened in the 2nd, Dittrich made many quality attempts, wearing Tekautz down throughout the period. In the 3rd period, Tekautz chose down, but the PEM coaching staff elected to award Tekautz an escape point, and let Dittrich keep applying pressure from the neutral position. The gamble ultimately worked. As Dittrich kept taking attempt after attempt, Tekautz was able to fight off every attempt, some of them barely. But due to Dittrich’s consistent aggressiveness, Tekautz was penalized twice for stalling, and Dittrich was awarded a point to tie the match at 3-3 where it remained until the end of regulation. Going into overtime, both men were obviously exhausted but something had to give. Tekautz took the risk on a single leg, but Dittrich’s counter began a scramble that ended in a Bulldog takedown, and a victory in quite possibly the most exciting match of the year in the PEM gym.
At 170, LARP attempted to regain some of the lost momentum with a decision victory to cut the Bulldog lead to 6 points again, but then gave 182, Frank Wingert a forfeit and the lead was back to 12 points. At 195, PEM senior Jacob Clark, sealed the win for the Bulldogs with a 7-3 win giving PEM their largest lead of the night at 15 with only 2 weight classes left. At 220, LARP got 4 points back with a major decision. The at 285, PEM freshman Logan Wingert, reversed the results from 2 weeks prior, and finished the dual with another pin, giving the Bulldogs a 17 point win, and an invitation to the Section semifinals.
Click Here to view pictures from the event.
Quarterfinal: Plainview-Elgin-Millville 39 Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson 22
106 - Cael Marx (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Ross Herber (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Dec 9-5
113 - Garrett Olson (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Carter Jonsgaard (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Dec 5-1
120 - Nick Miller (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Sam Schwendinger (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Fall 1:20
126 - Josh Doerr (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) over Joe Stucky (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) Fall 2:57
132 - Reed DeFrang (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Reece Riebel (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Fall 2:49
138 - Xavier Riser (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) over Grant Rubin (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) Dec 13-10
145 - Carter Marx (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Dominic Jenkins (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Dec 5-4
152 - Ethan Sense (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) over Connor Jones (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) Fall 3:43
160 - Dustin Dittrich (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over McCoy Tekautz (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) SV-1 5-3
170 - Justin Mueller (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) over Austin Rother (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) Dec 9-3
182 - Frank Wingert (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Unknown (Unattached) Forf
195 - Jacob Clark (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Noah Herber (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Dec 7-3
220 - Cody Rain (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) over Riley Wingert (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) Maj 14-4
285 - Logan Wingert (Plainview-Elgin-Millville) over Logan Schindeldecker (Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson) Fall 0:44
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