The dual meet season came to a close for the Bulldogs on Saturday at the Mayo Civic Center, as the Bulldogs faced the #2 ranked Simley Spartans. Located in Inver Grove Heights, the Spartans are one of MN’s premier programs, placing 1st or 2nd in the last 11 State Tournaments. In their first season in Section 1AA, Simley came into the tournament ranked in the top 40 in the entire United States. Though the Spartans were heavily favored coming into the dual, the Bulldogs came ready to battle.
Starting at 106, PEM freshman Garrett Olson took a 9-0 lead before getting the pin in the 2nd period. Simley would counter win 2 pins at 113 and 120 where they would have two top-ranked wrestlers facing two PEM freshmen who were both bumped up a weight class to cover the weights. At 126, Cael Marx got the Bulldogs back on the board, needing just :43 seconds to get a takedown and pin. At 132, Cooper Hofschulte brought possibly his best effort of the season dropping a 19-7 decision to 2x State Champion and University of MN commit Jake Gliva.
Simley would get a tech fall at 138 to stretch the team lead to 21-12. At 145, Joe Stucky would have a great battle with #6 ranked Nolan Wanzek before dropping the 10-5 decision.The 152 lb match featured the Bulldogs’ #5 ranked Carter Marx vs. Simley’s #2 ranked Quayin Short. After an intense 1st minute of shots and counter-shots with no points scored, Marx was able to win a scramble from the neutral position which ended with Short on his back in a cradle, giving Marx a 5-0 lead going into the 2nd period. Marx chose down to start the 2nd period, and Short conceded the escape, making the match score 6-0, where it would remain for the remainder of the period. In the 3rd period Short was able to score an escape, and Marx was penalized a point for running Short out-of-bounds with a single leg up in the air. But Marx would hang on, to win the match 6-2. The win would be Marx’s 100th career victory. Carter becomes the 26th wrestler in PEM’s 56 year history to reach the 100 win milestone.
Going into 160, the Bulldogs were back within 9 points of the Spartans, but Simley would get two pins at 160 and 170 to stretch the lead up to 21 points. At 182, PEM’s Austin Rother dominated his opponent for 3 periods, but was unable to turn the very flexible opponent and settled for an 8-2 PEM victory. Following at 195, Dustin Dittrich found himself in a wild, back and forth match, that would include 4 takedowns, 4 reversals, and 2 sets of nearfall points. But Dittrich would finish the final scramble of the match score a 3rd period pin, improving Dustin’s season record to 33-4. PEM would forfeit to Simley’s #1 nationally-ranked 220 lb. wrestler Daniel Kerklivet. In the final match of the dual at 285, PEM’s Logan Wingert would not surrender an offensive point, but would fall in a close 3-0 decision to Simley’s #5 ranked HWT Luke Zaiser. The loss would end the PEM’s dual meet season.
The Bulldogs finish the season 20-7, and 9-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. In addition to the 2 losses to Simley, all 5 of the other PEM season losses were to teams that qualified for their respective State Tournament. While the dual meet season is over, 13 PEM wrestlers are still poised to compete in the Section 1AA individual Tournament starting Friday Feb. 23 and concluding Saturday Feb. 24 with trips to the MN State Tournament on the line.
Pictures of the Event can be located here!
#2 SIMLEY 45 PEM 24
106: Garrett Olson (PEM) over Jesse Kounlabout (SIMLEY) (Fall 3:23)
113: Zac Miller #5 (SIMLEY) over Carter Meyers (PEM) (Fall 0:15)
120: Cael Berg #4 (SIMLEY) over Kael Lamb (PEM) (Fall 2:38)
126: Cael Marx (PEM) over Ruben Saldivar (SIMLEY) (Fall 0:43)
132: Jake Gliva #1 (SIMLEY) over Cooper Hofschulte (PEM) (MD 19-7)
138: Luis Fierro (SIMLEY) over Lafe Aarsvold (PEM) (TF 19-3 5:09)
145: Nolan Wanzek #6 (SIMLEY) over Joe Stucky (PEM) (Dec 10-5)
160: Jacob Hageman (SIMLEY) over Alex Rahman (PEM) (Fall 3:34)
170: Bennett Tabor (SIMLEY) over Connor Jones (PEM) (Fall 1:22)
182: Austin Rother (PEM) over Travis Dohmen (SIMLEY) (Dec 8-2)
195: Dustin Dittrich (PEM) over Blake Holzem (SIMLEY) (Fall 5:34)
220: Daniel Kerkvliet #1(SIMLEY) over (PEM) (For.)
285: Luke Zaiser #5(SIMLEY) over Logan Wingert (PEM) (Dec 3-0)
# denotes state ranking