On Tuesday night, Dec. 22, the Paynesville wrestlers finished off their first third of the season with Litchfield and Paynesville. Both were two very important matches to show where the Bulldogs were at so far.As Paynesville readied themselves for the match against Litchfield, they knew this was unofficially the conference title on the line.
Nathan Glenz stepped out on the mat at 103 to start the Bulldogs off. Nate wrestled a good match, but unfortunately lost it 9-4 against a tough Litchfield wrestler. Jeremy Sogge, Brad Schultz, and David Kerzman came next and pinned, decisioned, and majored their opponents. Paynesville let five more matches go toward Litchfield throughout the match as Paynesville racked up the bonus points and won seven matches leaving Litchfield with six wins. Paynesville pinned their opponents at 112, 140, 160, and 189, and majored at 125 and 171. With Paynesville winning the match 35-21 it was a good sign for the upcoming conference title, because Litchfield is one of the toughest in the conference.
After Paynesville celebrated for a brief moment, they knew their night was far from over. What they didn’t know about their next opponents, Big Lake, was that this was sure going to be a stressful match.
The fearsome Paynesville pep band cheered on the Bulldogs and fired them up in the warmups, as Paynesville ran to the Rocky theme played by the band.
Nathan Glenz and Jeremy Sogge led off the pumped up Bulldogs onto the mat at 103 and 112. The two swapped decisions at 103 and 112 so the Bulldogs were tied going into 119.
Brad Schultz went out at 119 against a very tough state ranked kid, and wrestled well, but was caught and pinned late in the first period.
At 125, Max Meagher filled in well and beat his opponent 9-4.
Kerzman, the dominator, wrestled at 130 and pinned his opponent in 3:22.
With the Bulldogs slightly ahead at the beginning of 135, Big Lake struck with a pin, but Paynesville struck back at 140, 145, and 152 with Chris Welle, Joe Hiltner, and Scott Braun respectively.
Paynesville now was ahead 30-15, and the next four matches were going to be the toughest for Paynesville. With Paynesville losing three decisions and a tech fall, Paynesville edged out Big Lake 30-29. Matt Brauchler wrestled heavy-weight and had an excellent match. Even though he didn’t win, he stuck in there so Paynesville would win, so that was a key match for Matt.
One other key match of the night was at 152, with Scott Braun. He went out even though he wasn’t favored and pinned his opponent.
One side note about the night is Chris Welle at 140. He pinned both his opponents, and they also were both in 1:05 exactly.
Paynesville finished the night off with the team’s average wins of 7-7. Against Litch it was 7-6, and against Big Lake it was 6-7. The combined scores, though, favored Paynesville by a little more than the matches show. Paynesville left the night with 65 points over their opponents’ 50.
Results from those matches are as follows:
Paynesville: 35 Paynesville: 30
Litchfield: 21
Big Lake: 29