The Bulldog wrestling team took a 2-0 record into St. Charles on Dec. 21, for what would be the 1st conference dual meet of the year. The meet itself featured several momentum swings and pins were recorded in 13 of the 14 matches, including 10 in the first period.
At 106, SC got on the board first with a 1st period pin to take a 6-0 lead. PEM freshman Garrett Olson was able to get the Bulldogs on track at 113 with a double leg takedown and and an armbar to tie the meet up at 6-6. At 120, PEM senior Nick Miller used the same recipe to record a 1st period pin of his own and give the Bulldogs a 12-6 lead.
At 126, PEM freshman Cael Marx surrendered a 1st period takedown and took a 2-1 deficit into the 2nd period before recovering to post a 2nd period fall and give the Bulldogs a n 18-6 lead. Freshman, Cooper Hofschulte kept PEM rolling at 132 with yet another 1st period pin stretching the PEM lead to 18 which would be the largest lead of the night. At 138, SC needed someone to stop the PEM momentum and they got it, in the form of #1 ranked Mark Buringa, son of Plainview state champion Mike Buringa. The younger Buringa quickly closed the PEM lead to 12 going into the 145 lb match.
The Bulldogs were poised to stretch their lead again with sophomore Joe Stucky who recorded a takedown and nearfall points in the first minute of the 145 match. Stucky then hit a tilt, which would have stretched his lead to 8-0, but inadvertently got his own shoulders too close to the mat, which resulted in a defensive fall and another 6 point victory for the saints. At 152, the Saints continued with another 1st period fall effectively erasing the 18 point lead the Bulldogs held only 3 weights earlier. Going into 160, now the Bulldogs needed a victory to regain the momentum heading into the final 6 weight classes. PEM freshman Alex Rahman proved to be the man for the job against his senior opponent taking a 4 point lead into the 3rd period before reversing his opponent to his back and recording the third period fall.
At 170, in what would be the only full match of the evening, PEM junior Carter Marx went into the closing seconds of the match losing 11-10. With 3 seconds left, SC was warned for stalling for the 3rd time which earned Marx a point and a restart. In the 3 second restart, Marx would earn the victory by escaping and earning another point at 12-11. This would stretch the PEM lead back to 9 at 33-24, then SC was penalized an additional point for unsportsmanlike conduct making the lead 33-23. At 182, SC battled back yet again, and recorded a first period fall closing the lead to only 4 points. At 195, PEM senior Austin Rother took a little over a minute to stretch the PEM lead back to 10 with a fall.
Despite weighing in at only 187, junior Dustin Dittrich, bumped all the way up to 220 and took only 17 seconds to record a fall and effectively seal the meet for the Bulldogs heading into 285 where St. Charles would get the final 6 points of the evening.
Coach’s comments: “Overall, I’ve been very pleased with how hard all of the wrestlers in our room have been working in this first period of our season. The performance of the freshmen in our line-up was absolutely critical tonight. I was also very impressed with how St. Charles was ready to compete at a number of weight classes this evening, they deserve credit for the work that they have been putting in as well. We need to able to learn a number of key lessons this evening, especially the need to stay in better position when we are on the bottom.”The Bulldogs are now 3-0 heading into Christmas break and will next compete on Dec. 29 when they compete at the UWEC Holiday Duals in Eau Claire, WI.
Pictures of the Event can be located here!
Plainview-Elgin-Millville (PEM) 45 St. Charles (STCH) 35
106: Jett Thoreson (STCH) over Carter Meyers (PEM) (Fall 0:21)
113: Garrett Olson (PEM) over Brady Koeppel (STCH) (Fall 1:17)
120: Nick Miller (PEM) over Adrian Wilery (STCH) (Fall 1:16)
126: Cael Marx (PEM) over Tyler Mathison (STCH) (Fall 2:25)
132: Cooper Hofschulte (PEM) over Alex Welch (STCH) (Fall 1:28)
138: Mark Buringa (STCH) over Lafe Aarsvold (PEM) (Fall 0:13)
145: Gaige Buss (STCH) over Joe Stucky (PEM) (Fall 0:55)
152: Jersey Thoresen (STCH) over Luke Martinson (PEM) (Fall 0:46)
160: Alex Rahman (PEM) over Mason Buck (STCH) (Fall 5:10)
170: Carter Marx (PEM) over Joe Dayland (STCH) (Dec 12-11) (STCH Unsportsmanlike -1.00)
182: Logan Wendt (STCH) over Connor Jones (PEM) (Fall 1:44)
195: Austin Rother (PEM) over Riley Ferden (STCH) (Fall 1:04)
220: Dustin Dittrich (PEM) over Jake Stokes (STCH) (Fall 0:17)
285: Teagan Young (STCH) over Riley Wingert (PEM) (Fall 5:51)
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