Edmunds County Tribune -

The Ipswich Area varsity wrestling team wrestled on Tuesday, January 21 and Saturday the 26th last week.

On Tuesday the team traveled to Mobridge to compete in the Mobridge-Pollock Invite which was in a round-robin format.  The team earned a third-place finish out of seven teams.  Tanner Frickson, Denver Wolff, Matt McCloud and Carter Heinz all contributed team points. 

The team then traveled to Arlington on Saturday to compete at the Kingsbury County Invitational. The team got 12th out of 18 placers with 43 team points.  Individually Carter Heinz placed second and Tanner Frickson fourth in the tournament that only awarded the top four places.  Coach Todd Naasz said “I thought the tournament went good. We were able to see some tough opponents that we don’t normally see. The athletes competed hard and most of them wrestled above their ranks or had better matches against opponents that have beat them earlier in the season. The athletes have made a lot of improvements since the beginning of the season. The season is quickly coming to an end. We need to continue to improve on the basics to achieve the goals we have for the season. We have one tournament and a couple of important duals before regionals to have criteria over our opponents”.   Criteria is used to determine seeding position at the regional tournament. 

On January 16 the team had traveled to Highmore to compete in dual competition against Miller/ Highmore-Harold and Faulkton Area.  (Mobridge-Pollock backed out of the dual because of road conditions.  The Tigers won the dual vs M/H-H 34 to 30. But  they ended the night, losing the dual vs Faulkton Area 45 to 21.  Coach Naasz said “I thought the athletes wrestled really well.  We had a couple of wins that could have went either way.  I was really proud of our 8th grade for stepping up to the challenge.”

The tournament in Gettysburg on January 18 was cancelled due to weather.

Looking ahead, the wrestlers will compete on Saturday, February 1 in Groton for their last tournament of the regular season.  They will then compete in dual matches on February 6 in Warner against Warner/Northwestern and Faulkton Area.  A day later on February 7 the team will return to Warner in dual competition facing Warner/Northwestern and Potter County. The last competition before the region tournament will then be a dual in Highmore against Miller/Highmore-Harrold, scheduled for February 11.

Individual results at Kingsbury County:

106- Brady Unser scored nine team points and won by pin, :45; was pinned, 2:32; won by pin, 3:38; was pinned, 1:55.

113- Parker Gill was pinned, :24; lost 6-3.

126- Tanner Frickson scored 10 team points and won 6-1; lost 10-6; won 15-3, lost 12-8 for fourth place.

138- Denver Wolff was pinned, :45; was pinned, 1:41.

145- Darrel Yost was pinned, :32; was pinned, :27.

160- Grant Weisser scored four team points and was pinned, :43; won by pin, 2:24; was pinned, 2:29.

182- Matthew McCloud was pinned, :40; was pinned, 2:38.

195- Carter Heinz scored 20 team points and won by pin, 1:10; won by pin, 3:00; lost 5-4 for second place.

Individual results at Mobridge-Pollock Invite round-robin:

106- Brady Unser was pinned, 5:37; was pinned, 3:35.

113- Parker Gill lost 9-3; lost 16-0, technical fall.

132- Tanner Frickson scored 9.5 team points placing second and won 17-1, technical fall; won 4-2; was pinned, 5:36; won by pin, :46.

132- Preston Martin lost 17-1, technical fall; was pinned, 1:10; was pinned, 5:33; was pinned, 3:12.

138- Denver Wolff scored seven team points placing first and won by pin, 5:30; lost 12-2 .

145- Darrel Yost was pinned, :27; lost 16-3.

160- Grant Weisser lost 13-2; was pinned, 1:44.

182- Matthew McCloud scored four team points and was pinned, 1:14; was pinned, :30; was pinned, 1:07.

195- Carter Heinz scored nine team points placing first and won by pin, 1:02 and won by pin, 3:54 for first place.