The Osakis wrestling team dropped its first two meets of the season Thursday in consecutive home duals against Coon Rapids and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle-Browerville.
In the main match of the evening, LPGE-Browerville used big wins between state-ranked individuals in the lower classes to grab a 35-26 victory. The match was the first experience for Osakis against the newly-formed cooperative team of LPGE and Browerville. Head coach Joey Andreasen said the brand new team was a strong opponent.
“I don’t know if that tuckered us out for the second match, but Long Prairie-Browerville, they really wrestled well,” Andreasen said. “I was really impressed with them.”
Seth Johnson gave the Silverstreaks four quick team points at the 106-pound weight class with a 12-3 major decision. The sophomore was close to pinning his opponent a few times but eventually was forced to settle for the major.
“I could have done maybe a little bit better, I feel I could have pinned him,” Johnson said.
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After the first match, LPGE would win five of the next seven decisions. State ranked Noah Becker defeating ranked Trenton Coyer 4-1 at 120 pounds, and state ranked Miguel Ambriz also defeated ranked Brendon Coyer 7-2 at 132 pounds.
State ranked Ryan Engfer picked up a big 5-4 win for the Silverstreaks at 138 over ranked Nicholas Middendorf. Darrin Stoetzel also contributed six team points for Osakis at 126 pounds when he quickly pinned his opponent.
But the five early victories in the first eight matches gave LPGE an early 20-13 advantage. Andreasen knew that a win would be tough for Osakis once LPGE picked up two wins in those matches between state ranked opponents.
“I knew that down below we had to win two of those three matches, and we lost two of those three with the state ranked guys,” Andreasen said. “Then I knew we were going to be fighting from behind.”
A decision from Colton Waldvogel at 160 pounds and a major decision from Nils Hagen at 195 helped keep Osakis in the match.
Hagen was undefeated this season heading into Thursday, but he ended up losing a 15-10 match against a state-ranked wrestler from Coon Rapids. He was able to redeem himself later with the 10-0 victory.
“I felt pretty good,” Hagen said about the two matches. “That kid from Coon Rapids is a very good wrestler in AAA.”
A forfeit from LPGE at 220 pounds reduced Osakis’ deficit to 29-26 heading to the final heavyweight match between Ronnie Towle and Austin Chyba. A late pin in the third period for Chyba iced the 35-26 victory for LPGE.
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COON RAPIDS 46, SILVERSTREAKS 21
The Silverstreaks started the evening with a dual against Coon Rapids that started at 5:30 p.m. Andreasen said the match with Coon Rapids, a much larger school in Class AAA, worked out when Osakis needed to fill its schedule.
“We were short matches, and I went out and tried to find someone,” Andreasen said. “They were the only one that would take us.”
The Silverstreaks ended up dropped the match against the Cardinals 46-21. But Andreasen was happy with Osakis’ effort to stay competitive against a much larger school.
“We wrestled Coon Rapids really tough, we ended up losing three one-point decisions,” Andreasen said. “So that was disappointing, but exciting at the same time.”
