The Covid pandemic threw another curve ball to youth sports this past weekend - April 1-3. With the state of Minnesota limiting the number of spectators and participants to indoor venues, the Northland Youth Wrestling Association (NYWA) moved its state tournament to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and the Denny Sanford Premier Center! With the entire state tournament cancelled last year due to Covid, 1,600 eager PreK-8th grade wrestlers traveled out of state for a weekend of excitement and energy! The PEM youth wrestling team was in the mix as well as 13 Bulldog Grapplers traveled the 3.5 hours to the Dakota Prairie. After the dust had settled and the months of blood, sweat, and tears of training had concluded, PEM wrestling put their name on Minnesota's map with some well earned hardware!!! Many wrestlers concluded the weekend battling through 9,10 and in some cases even 11 matches.
PEM 7th-8th grade Dual Team Earn Runner-up Finish. The months of training paid off for the PEM dual team as they completed their season with a winning state tournament and a 3-2 record at state. The squad consisting of 10 wrestlers earned hard fought wins over Wabasso, Minneota and Foley. The wins helped PEM make the championship of the 5th place pool before falling in a tight fought dual with eventual champion Hutchinson.
PEM Individuals Graner and Hinrichs Earn All-State Honors by placing in Top 6 11 PEM wrestlers also concluded their season by wrestling in the state individual tournament. Most of the brackets consisted of 32 wrestlers from across Minnesota. In order to medal wrestlers had to win at least 3 matches which earned them a spot in the top 6 in state. Individual wrestlers from PEM included Caleb Matiash (3rd grade), Nora Graner (2nd grade), Nash Graner (4th grade) as well as Aiden Graner (7th grade), Nolan Ford (7th grade), Nolan Pfeilsticker (8th grade), Carson Rahman (8th grade), Calen Kraemer (8th grade), Alex Hinrichs (8th grade), Alex Bedsted (8th grade) and Drew Rahman (8th grade). Alex Hinrichs and Nash Graner both started their brackets with 3-0 records and a trip to the state semi-finals. Both would fall to the 5th place matches with Hinrichs earning 5th place and Nash taking home the 6th place medal! Congrats to the Bulldog Wrestlers for your focus on your tough training and hard fought matches in South Dakota. The future is bright in PEM wrestling country!!!
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