Lemke, Knaus and Libbesmeier take first place

Kimball wrestlers participated in the 35th annual ACGC Wrestling Classic last Friday, Nov. 30, night in Grove City. Kimball went into the tournament with three open weights due to some ineligible wrestlers and an injury, but still wrestled very well with some first-time varsity wrestlers. Blaine Lemke had a great start to the year, winning the 119-pound title. In getting to the finals, he had to defeat Leo Ballesteteros of Willmar who placed second in the State tournament last year at 112 pounds. In a very exciting match, Blaine scored a takedown in overtime to get in the finals where he beat Eric Sullinger of EV-W by a score of 8-7.

The surprise wrestler of the tournament was Andy Knaus at 130. In his first varsity competition, Andy took home first-place honors with an 8-4 win over Chad Unterberger of EV-W in the finals. Andy posted three pins to get to the finals.

Tom Libbesmeier beat Dusty Baker of Montevideo by a score of 9-2 to gain the 171-pound championship. Tom is currently ranked second in the State at 171.

Chris Rausch put together a good tournament to take home a third-place medal at 152. Chris also was awarded the “most pins in the least amount of time” medal with three pins in a time of 5:33.

Kyle Winter took fourth at 189 in a very tough weight class that had three ranked wrestlers in it. Other wrestlers who scored points included Dave Schneider getting his first varsity win at 160; Jeremy Dahnke (145) and Luke Deutsch (140) each got a pin. Gary Salmela (125) and Erich Deutsch (135) also wrestled in the tournament.

Next up for the Cubs will be a triangular meet at Annandale with Ann-Maple Lake and Glencoe-Silver Lake on Thursday, Dec. 6, starting at 6:30. Saturday, Dec. 8, Kimball goes to the Milaca Tourney, which starts at 9 a.m. for the Junior Varsity and 10 a.m. for the Varsity.