Tuesday, Jan. 12, the Cubs hosted Howard Lake-Waverly and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle. It was important for the Cubs to come out and wrestle well as these teams are both in the section and HL-W-W is in our conference.
We started against HL-W-W with a Tech Fall out of Marcus Hamer(103) and a pin out of Tanner Mills(112). Tyler Kuechle(130) stopped the Lakers’ roll with a quick pin-out of his opponent. Then the Cubs started a streak of their own by winning the next five weights: Jordan Joseph(140) won by a pin, Caramon Hansen(145) received a forfeit, Mitch Pramann(152) and Travis Schiefelbein(160) won by major decisions, David Joseph(171) won by a decision. This streak was enough to put the match away for the Cubs and give them a nice conference win.
Kimball Area 40, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 25
103: Marcus Hamer (K) tech Brandon Maas (H) 5:01
112: Tanner Mills (K) fall Dylan Kosek (H) 2:19
119: Chris Cox (H) dec Justin Huhn (K) 9-8
125: Dylan Youngren (H) fall Tanner Meierhofer (K) :44
130: Tyler Kuechle (K) fall Jacob Demarais (H) 3:43
135: William Schanus (H) fall Quentin Bryce (K) 4:47
140: Jordan Joseph (K) fall Josiah Riemer (H) :14
145: Caramon Hansen (K) forf
152: Mitch Pramann (K) maj Jeff Hausladen (H) 14-4
160: Travis Schiefelbein (K) maj Austin Torres (H) 14-4
171: David Joseph (K) dec Tony Hausladen (H) 8-5
189: Carl Huer (H) dec Austin Schiefelbein (K) 5-1
215: Matt Marketon (H) dec Alex Thurber (K) 6-5
Hwt: Joel Koch (H) maj Cody Mackereth (K) 8-0
The Thunder from Long Prairie-Grey Eagle were next up on the Cubs’ list. Last year this match came down to heavyweight with the Cubs coming up with the win 36-34, but this year the Thunder struggled to bring a full line-up due to injuries and eligibility issues. The Cubs received a lot of forfeits and came up with the easy win. The Cubs received big wins out of Tanner Mills (112) by a fall, Justin Huhn(119) dominated his opponent with a major decision, andAlex Thurber(189) and Cody Mackereth(Hwt) closed the dual with pins from their opponents.
Kimball Area 64, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 12
103: Marcus Hamer (K) forf
112: Tanner Mills (K) fall Miguel Botello (L) 1:29
119: Justin Huhn (K) maj Javier Ambriz (L) 14-0
125: Thomas Haugen (L) fall Jeremiah Kelley (K) :45
130: Tyler Kuechle (K) forf
135: Quentin Bryce (K) forf
140: Jordan Joseph (K) forf
145: Mitch Pramann (K) forf
152: Kyle Middendorf (L) dec Caramon Hansen (K) 5-3
160: Travis Schiefelbein (K) forf
171: David Joseph (K) forf ()
189: Alex Thurber (K) fall Mitch Zastrow (L) 5:27
215: Tim Zastrow (L) dec Austin Schiefelbein (K) 11-4
Hwt: Cody Mackereth (K) fall Kody Kunerth (L) 1:02
Cubs lose heartbreaker in the finals of the Duals
Saturday, Jan. 16, the Cubs hosted the Kimball Duals that included eight teams from five different sections, and all three classes were represented. Section 5A was represented by Kimball, Eden Valley-Watkins, and Sauk Centre. Section 3A was represented by Yellow Medicine East, and MACCRAY. Staples represented section 8AA, Glencoe-Silver Lake represented 2AA, and Andover represented 7AAA.
Kimball was able to receive the number-one seed in the tournament and faced off against MACCRAY in the first round. Marcus Hamer(103) and Tanner Mills(112) both recorded pins for the Cubs in just over two minutes of wrestling. We received four straight wins out of Tyler Kuechle(125) who won by a pin, Tanner Meierhofer(130) received a forfeit, Jordan Joseph(135) won by a pin, Caramon Hansen(140) received a forfeit. Travis Schiefelbein(152) who won by a pin, David Joseph(160) won by a forfeit, and Alex Thurber won by a fall which sealed the deal for the Cubs.
Kimball Area 54, MACCRAY 25
103: Marcus Hamer (K) fall Evan Sutter (M) :43
112: Tanner Mills (K) fall Alex Wolf (M) 1:31
119: Colten Berends (M) fall Justin Huhn (K) 4:48
125: Tyler Kuechle (K) fall Brandon Bratsch (M) 2:59
130: Tanner Meierhofer (K) forf
135: Jordan Joseph (K) fall Christian Morris (M) 1:27
140: Caramon Hansen (K) forf
145: Matt Friese (M) dec Mitch Pramann (K) 8-7
152: Travis Schiefelbein (K) fall Ben Bonnema (M) 5:05
160: Taylor Bodin (M) fall Travis Wills (K) 5:23
171: David Joseph (K) forf
189: Brent Jaenisch (M) maj Austin Schiefelbein (K) 9-1
215: Alex Thurber (K) fall Tanner Bedel (M) 3:16
Hwt: Nick Kellen (M) fall Cody Mackereth (K) 2:59
In the Semi-Finals the Cubs faced Yellow Medicine East who beat the Cubs last year in the first round of the duals 47-23. But this year the Cubs got revenge beating YME 39-30. Marcus Hamer(103) and Tanner Mills(112) started the Cubs off fast again with two quick pins. Tyler Kuechle(125), Jordan Joseph(135), and Caramon Hansen(140) kept the Cubs rolling with two pins and a decision. Travis Schiefelbein(152) and David Joseph(160) picked up two nice wins by a decision over tough opponents. Alex Thurber(215) won by a pin to seal the win. The Cubs really wrestled this match well as a team by getting bonus points where we could, and by not giving up bonus points. The Cubs showed a lot of heart by fighting hard to get the win.
Kimball Area 39, Yellow Medicine East 30
103: Marcus Hamer (K) fall Zach Kluver (Y) :53
112: Tanner Mills (K) fall Tyler Merritt (Y) 1:36
119: Justin Stock (Y) fall Justin Huhn (K) 2:58
125: Tyler Kuechle (K) fall Holdyn Sand (Y) 4:09
130: Levi Specht (Y) fall Tanner Meierhofer (K) :58
135: Jordan Joseph (K) dec Dustin Baker (Y) 7-3
140: Caramon Hansen (K) fall Aaron Lalim (Y) 3:10
145: Justin Tongen (Y) dec Mitch Pramann (K) 6-4
152: Travis Schiefelbein (K) dec Logan Johnson (Y) 7-3
160: David Joseph (K) dec Mason Hegna (Y) 3-2
171: Cody Sander (Y) fall Travis Wills (K) 3:37
189: Derek Dyrdahl (Y) dec Austin Schiefelbein (K) 7-2
215: Alex Thurber (K) fall Jordan Hagert (Y) 3:10
Hwt: Tim Savig (Y) fall Cody Mackereth (K) 5:25
This set the Cubs up to face Staples-Motley in the finals. This was the second time that Kimball has faced Staples with them coming out on top two years ago 45-36 over Kimball. This year Staples and Kimball are both in the Guillotines Lean and Mean ratings; the only difference is that Staples is AA and Kimball is a single A school. The Cubs lost the flip and could not get the match-ups that they needed, but the kids did a great job of stepping up to the challenge. We started off by a decision out of Marcus Hamer(103), Tanner Mills(112) put us up 9-0 with a pin. Tyler Kuechle(125) received a forfeit, Jordan Joseph(135) won by a pin, Caramon Hansen(140) won by a major decision, Mitch Pramann(145) won an exciting match by a decision with a takedown with two seconds left on the clock. Travis Schiefelbein(152) saved some team points losing by a major decision to Jordan Bendson, a returning state champ and rated #1 in AA at 152 pounds. David Joseph(160) was up on his kid 2-1 and controlling the match very well when he was in on a shot and felt his ankle snap, the match was stopped and David had to injury default. It was a scary situation and we did not know how bad it was, the Kimball Fire & Rescue department along with Watkins ambulance did a great job of taking care of David and bringing him into the hospital to get x-rays to see how much damage was done. The team was very concerned for David and everybody was relieved when we received the call that David was able to walk out of the hospital and should be back for us in a couple of weeks. This stopped the action for awhile, and at this point Kimball had a 28-20 lead. The Cubs ended up losing three of the last four matches that could have gone either way with every match being more exciting than the previous. Alex Thurber(189) won his match by a 6-5 decision. It was a rollercoaster of emotions the whole way through the match and very exciting down to the wire with the Cubs getting their first loss of the year, losing 32-31.
Staples-Motley 32, Kimball Area 31
103: Marcus Hamer (K) dec Blake Miller (S) 8-3
112: Tanner Mills (K) fall Tyler Pogreba (S) 1:30
119: Jordan Heldman (S) fall Justin Huhn (K) 1:19
125: Tyler Kuechle (K) forf
130: Sam Duberowski (S) maj Tanner Meierhofer (K) 18-5
135: Jordan Joseph (K) fall Dylan Kylander (S) 1:03
140: Mitch Pramann (K) dec Brandon Flickinger (S) 5-3
145: Caramon Hansen (K) maj Jordan Bendson (S) 22-11
152: Jordan Bendson (S) maj Travis Schiefelbein (K) 10-1
160: Chandler Trout (S) injdef David Joseph (K)
171: Dylan Shequen (S) fall Travis Wills (K) 3:02
189: Alex Thurber (K) dec Blake Petrich (S) 6-5
215: Ryan Detloff (S) dec Austin Schiefelbein (K) 7-0
Hwt: David DeYonge (S) dec Cody Mackereth (K) 8-2
Final round placing
7th Place – MACCRAY 42 Andover 40
5th Place – Sauk Centre 42 Glencoe Silver Lake 31
3rd Place – Yellow Medicine East 43 Eden Valley-Watkins 31
1st Place – Staples-Motley 32 Kimball 31
With last week’s results, this puts the Cubs’ overall record at 11-1 and they are 3-0 in the Conference and 5-0 in the section. Kimball still has two kids undefeated: freshman Marcus Hamer(103) and seventh-grader Jordan Joseph(135); they are both 18-0 on the year.
The coaching staff would like to thank everyone who made the Kimball Duals possible. Without your hard work it would not have run so smoothly. The coaches from the other schools were very impressed with how it ran and the hospitality that we showed them. Also, thank you to every one who came to support our team. We have had great crowds and the kids have responded well, giving the fans everything they have.
Next up for the Cubs will be a home quad Thursday, Jan. 21, against Rockford, Ogilvie, and Norwood Young America with the action starting at 5 p.m., when Kimball wrestles against Rockford. Each round after that will start about 10 minutes after the previous match.