Somerset's wrestlers done facing conference's top three teams
When the Middle Border Conference wrestling dual meet schedule was announced, Somerset coach Mitch Flandrick saw that the scheduling was going to be less than hospitable for his team.
- Logan Peterson
When the Middle Border Conference wrestling dual meet schedule was announced, Somerset coach Mitch Flandrick saw that the scheduling was going to be less than hospitable for his team.
The Spartans drew Ellsworth, New Richmond and Amery for their first three MBC duals, going 0-3 against those formidable opponents. The third of those matches was a 51-15 loss to Amery last Thursday.
“We knew the first part of the schedule would be tough. Those are probably the three toughest teams in the conference,” said Flandrick.
The January portion of the MBC schedule offers better opportunities for the Spartans with matches scheduled against Osceola, Prescott and Baldwin-Woodville.
Bobby LeRoy, Bailey White, Gabe Flandrick and Max Praschak were winners for the Spartans against Amery. LeRoy won a 10-4 decision over Bennett Paulson, a promising freshman. White was able to score an 8-4 win over Austin Klugow. Flandrick won by pin over Alex Warman, the younger brother of Spartan assistant coach Cory Warman. Praschak earned a 6-2 win in his first match of the season over Amery’s Joe Lundgren.
With both teams having large rosters, they were able to wrestle nearly a complete junior varsity match before the varsity event started.
Tomahawk tournament
Three Spartan wrestlers were able to bring home championships from the Tomahawk Varsity Invitational wrestling tournament on Saturday.
LeRoy and Flandrick and Praschak were able to go 4-0 and win their weight classes.
LeRoy rolled through the 138-pound class for his title. Flandrick was in a stacked 145-pound class, where all four wrestlers who reached the semifinals had undefeated records. Praschak wrapped up his first week of wrestling by winning the 182-pound title on a technical fall over an Amherst opponent who brought a 12-2 record into the match. Praschak hadn’t wrestled until last week to give a knee injury from football sufficient time to heal.
Despite having just nine wrestlers competing in the varsity portion of the tournament, the Spartans were able to finish fourth among 14 teams in the final team standings.
Winning championships in their brackets in the JV tournament at Tomahawk were Lewey Raleigh, Fred Mangine, Braeden Greene, Harrison Kerr and Gage Kreucher.
Coach Flandrick said the results from Tomahawk were much better than he expected. Between the varsity and JV teams, the Spartans went 13-1 in the opening round of the tournament.
A couple of the best performances in the tournament came from White and Mitch McConaughey, who upset the second seed in their brackets to advance to the semifinals. White was able to reach the 145-pound finals, taking second place. McConaughey lost in overtime in the 170-pound semifinals.
The Spartans are now into their holiday break. Their next action will be the annual Northern Badger Invitational, which will be wrestled at River Falls High School on Dec. 27-28.
Tags: sports, somerset, spartans, wrestling, prep
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