The West Central Area-Ashby-Brandon-Evansville Knights won the Park Region Conference title on Saturday.
The Knights finished with eight wrestlers placing second or first.
Hunter Gruchow (132), Reubens Swanson (145) and Anthony Sykora (170) took home individual titles for the Knights.
Gruchow won the title at 132 with an opening-round bye, a 15-5 major decision over Bertha-Hewitt-Verndale-Parkers Prairie’s Deagan Captain in the semifinals and a major decision in the finals over LPGE-Browerville’s Braden Thom (ranked No. 5 in Class A at 132 by the Guillotine), 16-8.
A second period takedown gave Swanson the win over United North Central’s Hank Tellers 3-1 in the finals. Swanson outscored his three opponents 26-6 en route to taking the title at 145.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sykora dominated the competition as well, earning two pins out of three matches wrestled. His lone non-pin victory came in the semifinals against LPGE-Browerville’s Tate Twardowski (12-6 decision). Sykora outscored his opponents 34-10 on Saturday.
Owen Gruchow (106), Carter Lohse (113), Beau Robinson (182), Will Rustan (195) and Colton Lindquist (220, ranked No. 2 in Class A) all finished second in their brackets for the Knights.
Adam Lohse (120), Solomon Wales (138) and Justin Blascyk (285) finished third in their respective brackets.
Adama Lohse earned his 75th career varsity win en route to his third-place finish.
Knights head coach Brandon Gruchow was named 2022 Park Region Conference Coach of the Year.
The Knights scored 225 team points, finishing 17.5 points ahead of second-place LPGE-Browerville.
All 14 Knight wrestlers placed in the top six.
BHVPP’s Gideon Ervasti was the only Raider to take home a title on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ervasti improved 11-1 with two wins on Saturday including a 5-2 over WCA-A-B-E’s Lindquist in the finals. He got to the finals with an opening-round bye and a pin (1:08) over LPGE-Browerville’s Alex Line in the semifinals.
Two Raiders, David Revering (ranked No. 10 in Class A at 126) and Reese Thompson (138) took second place.
Revering fell to No. 8 Mason Bruder (LPGE-Browerville) 4-2 in the finals, while Ottertail Central’s Brien Poser pinned Thompson (2:59) in the finals.
Justin Olson (106) and Captain (132) both finished third in the respective brackets. The Raiders placed eight wrestlers in the top five and scored 124 team points.
Beating Olson in the semifinals at 106 was Osakis’ Reggie George (ranked No. 4 at 106 in Class A), who won 4-2. George went on to take the title at 106 by defeating Owen Gruchow by major decision (11-2). George outscored his opponents 27-7 on Saturday.
Jacob Taplin nearly became the second Silverstreak to win a title but fell 5-3 in the finals against LPGE-Browerville’s Gavin Albers, who is ranked No. 1 in Class A at 120.
Osakis placed four of its five wrestlers in the top five and finished tied for sixth as a team (along with Ottertail Central), scoring 73.5 points.
Osakis is back on the mat with a triangular at Ortonville on Thursday. WCA-A-B-E returns to the mat with a quad at Morris Tuesday and BHVPP is at Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa for a triangular.
ADVERTISEMENT
All of those meets begin at 5 p.m.
