Wrestlers Compete at Holiday Tournament
Fourth Place Finish for Wrestlers
January 01, 2010
The Freeman wrestling team traveled Wednesday to Geneva to compete in Fillmore Central’s first holiday tournament. The tournament was set up in a pool format instead of the usual double elimination bracket. This allowed wrestlers to compete with wrestlers at their level, and provided more matches. Most wrestlers wrestled four to five matches. Freeman was led with seven medalists, which helped the team place fourth with 103 team points.
Kevin Weyers (171) was a gold medalist by winning five matches. He recorded two pins, one tech fall, and two decisions.
Freeman had four wrestlers place third. Brian Nieveen (103) was in a four-man round robin, and three of the wrestlers went 2-1. Nieveen ended up getting third by the tiebreaker criteria of most pins. Nieveen ended up with one pin and one decision. Austin Ruskamp (140), Chandler Brandert (145), and Evan Buss (215) all went 3-2 in their pools. Ruskamp and Brandert won with two pins and a decision, while Buss won all three matches by pins.
Joel Gronewold (112) was in a five-man round robin, and received fourth place by going 1-3. He won one match with a pin.
Mitch Hesseltine (152) placed fifth at the meet with one loss. He went 3-1 and won all his matches with pins. His one lost came from an injury default.
Chase Heble (130), Gerrit VanEngen (152), and Nate Milke (160) all went 2-3. Heble won a match by pin and another by decision, while VanEngen and Milke won by pins. VanEngen recorded his first varsity win at this meet, and was able to win another.
Alex Richardson (140) and Logan Schoneweis (171) also competed, but fell short of a victory.
“This was the first pool tournament that Freeman has every competed in,” stated Coach Troxel. “I liked how the wrestlers got many matches throughout the day and most of the time the wrestlers were paired by abilities. The wrestlers did well coming off the five-day moratorium and only have two days of a practice before the meet.”
Freeman will start off the new year by competing at Malcolm on Saturday, January 9th.
(Pictures provided by Elizabeth Nieveen)
