By Lori Mork
Sports Editor
With seven individuals ranking among the state's best, and a team ranking of No. 7 in Class AAA, the Cardinal wrestlers are a team to be reckoned with.
They reinforced that standing with a 69-9 rout of Cold Spring-Rocori Thursday night, winning nine matches by pin, and another two by forfeit.
"Our team has been working on developing a hard and tough style to our wrestling in hopes of begin able to feed off the stability of being solid in all aspects of a wrestling match," said Cardinal head coach Tom Ellison. "We have seen flashes of that during the season so far, but I am not sure we have had the total team effort in being tough as we had against Rocori.
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"Our wrestling seemed to build like a snowball building as it rolls down a hill," he said. "After a tough match at 103, Anthony McQueen got it started with a pin at 112, and our momentum started to move along slowly until Tanner Weltzin came up with a big pin at 135.
"Tanner exemplified the spirit of toughness in his match when he faced Derik Gertken. Gertken is an accomplished wrestler and gave Tanner everything he could handle in the first period.
"Tanner took over from that point and inspired our team with a hard-fought match leading to a pin," he said. "From Tanner's match on, our wrestlers poured their hearts into it and came away with a very impressive CLC win."
Weltzin's win was his 75th career victory, while senior John Amundson, who earned a forfeit, became Alexandria's all-time win leader.
ALEXANDRIA 69, ROCORI 9
103 - Dylan Gertken, Roc, pinned Brian Eipperle 1:01, 112 - Anthony McQueen, Alex, pinned Nate Ness 0:41, 119 - Taylor Morical, Alex, pinned Jason Spoden 5:34, 125 - Charlie Kirscht, Alex, pinned Tim Soldner 1:02, 130 - Lucas Betterman, Alex, dec. Camaron Hanson 10-9, 135 - Tanner Weltzin, Alex, pinned Derik Gertken 4:39, 140 - John Amundson, Alex, won by forfeit, 145 - Nate Kelly, Alex, won by forfeit, 152 - Mike Kirscht, Alex, pinned Chris Braun 1:34, 160 - Josh Betterman, Alex, pinned Zach Kuechle 0:57, 171 - Ben Wittrock, Roc, dec. Kyle Fulghum 11-10, 189 - Isaac Meyer, Alex, pinned Alex Weiman 1:34, 215 - Dillon Schauf, Alex, pinned Jeremiah Dorf 0:46, HWT - Ross Carlson, Alex, pinned Kyle Lieser 1:15.
