Brett Willaby finishes second; heads to state meet
The Windom/Mountain Lake (W/ML) Cobra wrestlers competed in the Section 3A Invdividual Wrestling Tourney yesterday (Friday, February 19) and today (Saturday, February 20) at Canby.
Eighth-grader Brett Willaby finished second in the 106-pound weight class – and is headed to next week’s 2016 Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) Class A Individual Wrestling Tourney (first- and second-place finishers advance to state). The tourney – for teams and individuals – is scheduled for Thursday, February 25 through Saturday, February 27, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Seven additional Cobras earned spots in the top six – Zach Spinks, Alex Borsgard and Yanick Tade in third; Evan Wiens and Jesse Jepsen in fourth and Hunter Ekstrom and Julio Gutierrez Jr. in sixth. As well, Josh Samdal at 132 finished seventh, Jeff Wright was eighth at 160 and at 195, Eli Mutz finished in seventh.
After the opening day of the Section 3A meet, W/ML had six of its 11 wrestlers heading into the semi-finals: Willaby moved on at 106, Spinks at 113, Borsgard at 126, Wiens at 138, Jepsen at 145 and at 152, Tade.
Results from Saturday:
+ In the 106-pound first-place match, sophomore Brant Buysse of Minneota pinned Willaby in 0:33. Willaby won the second-place wrestleback by rule over eighth-grader Kalib Greenman of Canby.
+ At 113, freshman Zach Spinks faced senior Avery Vanoverbeke of Minneota in the second-place wrestlebacks, with Spinks loosing by rule. Spinks returned in the third-place match to win a 1-0 decision over freshman Sam Kulseth of St. James Area.
+ At 120, W/ML’s Hunter Ekstrom, a freshman, finished six, losing a 6-3 fifth-place match decision to Alex Full of Canby.
+ Freshman Alex Borsgard dropped his second-place wrestleback match-up at 126 to Minneota senior Eric Hauswedell, and bounced back to claim the third-place bronze with a 3:14 fall over sophomore Zach Poelaert of JCC.
+ In the 138-pound bracket, junior Evan Wiens lost his third-place match to senior Konnor King of Canby in an 8-6 decision, giving him a fourth-place finish.
+ At 145, Jepsen faced St. James’ Max Svalland in the third-place match. The freshman dropped a 11-2 major decision to the St. James junior.
+ Yanick Tade finished in third at 152. In the second-place wrestleback, the junior lost to Canby junior Nick Antony, and rallied to win the third-place match by a 6-4 decision over Minneota senior Kolin Drietz.
+ In the 220-pound fifth-place match-up junior Julio Gutierrez lost to sophomore Dylan Arndt of Pipestone in a 5-2 decision.
All photos below are courtesy of W/ML Cobra Wrestling:
