The Ellsworth Panthers competed at the regional competition in St. Croix Falls over the weekend where they advanced two wrestlers as individuals.

Senior Carson Wright placed second at 113 and senior William Penn at 138 took first place. They will both advance to the sectional round in Tomahawk this Saturday to compete for a chance to go to the state tournament.

Going into the tournament, Head Coach Mark Matzek said they felt good about where they were at.

“We've been battling sickness the last couple of weeks, so hopefully that's gone through. We also had a couple of season-ending injuries, and that's going to hurt us, but the guys had a good two weeks of training, and they're looking sharp,” Matzek said.

Coach Matzek says their ideal goal was to get everyone through to state as a team, but they don’t quite have the depth this year as some of the other teams they faced at St. Croix Falls. That said, if you take a look at Ellsworth’s  body of work, they have some really talented individuals who they hoped could make a big push into the postseason.

Willy Penn is ranked number two in the state and had 40 regular season wins at 138 pounds. Austin Peterson, who placed fifth at regionals, had 34 wins at 106 pounds and Carson Wright had 32 wins, to name a few. Matzek said they’re allowed up to 50 matches before regionals, but their guys usually go about 40, give or take five, so Penn and Wright advancing isn’t really a surprise.

“It’s kind of the rule of halves. So, what I mean by that is that you go into regionals, and you enter 14 and hope to get half through to sectionals. Then, once you go to sectionals, you hope to get half of them to state,” Matzek said. “So, that's kind of where we're at. We’re bringing 13 because we don’t have another 132-pounder, so the over under is going to be six then, and I feel strong that we can get real close to that number.”

Unfortunately, they came up short of this number, but Ellsworth will still have two representatives at sectionals this weekend.

Senior Penn came into the season ranked as one of the best wrestlers in the state, and he’s more than made good on that.

“Will’s not going to have a cakewalk to state by any means, but he continues to do what he does. He’s won every tournament he’s entered in except two,” Matzek said.

For a program that’s been as successful as Ellsworth’s for as long as it’s been, Matzek says it’s getting harder to replace seniors like him than it once was.

“It's hard to replace seniors, especially at this point in society, because if something's hard, or they don’t get instant gratification, kids quit. It’s like that old adage, those who stay will be champions. These guys have to realize that,” Matzek said.

Coach Matzek says a lot of this is due to the disparity between the younger guys at a certain weight and the older ones.

“When you’re a freshman or sophomore going against guys that are more mature, more physical, that're 17 or 18 years old, they're going to beat you up. You need to wait your time, until you're a junior and senior, and then you're going to be wrestling those 16-year-olds that aren’t as physically developed as you are,” Matzek said. “So, that's the thing, is that they have to stay out, which I'm proud to say that we have a good solid freshman class that has stuck it out, and they are going to come back next year. We’ve got a group of eighth graders coming up too. Having consistency in the program is very important.”

The sectional round of competition is this Saturday in Tomahawk where Penn and Wright will look to qualify to take their talents to the state tournament.

Prescott Cardinals

The Prescott Cardinals wrestling team competed at regionals in St. Croix Falls on Saturday, advancing just one wrestler to the sectional round.

Nolan Thomley was the lone Cardinal to qualify for sectionals, winning the 150-pound bracket. Lewis Kinneman battled tough but lost a heart breaker in the consolation semifinals. The rest of the team wrestled well, but ultimately lost out in the consolation quarter finals.

Head Coach Ian Ruble says that, as a whole, every wrestler they put on the mat brought their A-game, and he saw their kids put the puzzle pieces together and do the things they have been working on.

Thomley was Prescott’s top performer this year, and he entered the weekend with a 37-5 record in the 150-pound weight class, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him move on. Coach Ruble said the confidence level was high that he would finish 1^st Team All-Conference based on his accolades throughout the season.

“We'll have our coach’s meeting that will establish that,” Ruble said. “The Middle Border no longer has a conference tournament, so we turn to conference dual success, and then we also look at other things like when you face non-conference opponents, or face conference opponents at non-conference events, and then how your postseason looks as well.”

For wrestling, there is one first team placement at each weight class, so there'll be 14 total first team all-conference wrestlers in the Middle Border, given that there are 14 weight classes. The same process follows with 2^nd Team All-Conference awards and finally all-conference honorable mentions.

Ruble says their young team and burgeoning program has taken a lot of big steps forward this season, with a lot of new faces in the wrestling room for the first time.

“It's kind of cliché, but everybody at some point this year has shown some big jumps in the wrestling ability. I look at kids who have been wrestling for one or two years, or having never wrestled before, and I think back to their first matches,” Ruble said. “We couldn't even get into a wrestling stance, or couldn't move our feet or circle, and now we're getting takedowns, we're getting turns, we're getting pins. It's really hard to just pick one person who stands out the most, it’s the entire team that stands out.”

The growth of the Cardinals’ program this season wasn’t just taking on young guys with little to no experience either; it also came with the inception of a brand new girls wrestling team, one of the few schools that has one.

“The girls got competition all throughout the season and ended up tallying nine total weigh in events. Two of those were duals against Somerset and Osceola who each have a few girls,” Ruble said. “Between the two of them, they have around 20 matches each, and then they're looking to the postseason here next weekend because the girls go right to sectionals, they don’t have a regional tournament.”

Charlotte Kellogg is one of Prescott’s two female wrestlers who formed the girls’ team during its inaugural season, and she is one of those who had almost no experience coming into the season and still made big strides.

“She went from losing every match to taking third this past weekend at a tournament in Eau Claire,” Ruble said. “She ended up avenging a loss from earlier this season, and then beating some other very good Minnesota team girls.”

In addition to Thomley and Kellogg, Ruble also identified Steven Atherton, Lewis Canavan and Carter Larsen as guys who, when they have good matches, can hang with the type of opponents they saw this weekend.

As they go into next year and start building their schedule and practice regimens, the plan is to tailor their schedule to get kids as many matches and learning opportunities as possible. That way, when the majority of their team enters into their junior and senior seasons, they become truly competitive in a very tough Middle Border Conference.

“Obviously, you want to get as many wins as you can. You can’t be a competitor or a great coach if you're satisfied with losing everything, but I'm at peace with where we started to where we are now,” Ruble said. “We're fighting, we're competing, and oftentimes, we're in duals and matches where it's just the position of one hand where one of our guys grabs a wrist instead of a tricep or a bicep that just gives the opponent a little bit more wiggle room to outmaneuver them to a more advantageous position, and that makes it all the difference in the match. They say football is a game of inches, well wrestling then is maybe a game of millimeters.”

Ruble says these minute mistakes that affect the outcomes of matches are the result of a simple lack of mat time. He says that is the biggest hurdle for his young team right now, so they’re trying to get as many matches as they can.

As the first season of Ruble’s tenure as head coach comes to a close, he reflects on the progress they’ve made.

“There were definitely a lot of highs and lows,” Ruble said. “There was a bit of a learning curve, and there were some logistical things that I learned how to do better, but it was a good way for me to come into the season and kind of learn how wrestlers and athletes in today's age learn and respond to coaching and just sports in general.”

With one extremely talented wrestler left competing for the Cardinals in Thomley, they will turn their undivided attention to getting him through Saturday’s sectionals in Tomahawk and onto the podium at the state tournament.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats competed in their regional tournament on Saturday in Hudson where they advanced six individual wrestlers to the sectional round.

Oliver Larson took second in the 113-pound weight class, Waylon Deaton took third at 120, Jonas Longsdorf took second at 132, Tucker Wicklund took fourth at 138, Vinny Costabilo was third at 144 and Lincoln McCarty took first at 215.

Head Coach Cameron Loomis says that, although they’ve lost two wrestlers to broken bones and one to a torn UCL, the last few weeks have been positive for their program as a whole, winning multiple events and going into regionals with a full head of steam.

“Team wise, we've been rolling, exactly where you really want to be going into the postseason. During that time, the downfalls we've had are unfortunate injuries as some big parts of our lineup are going to be out, unfortunately,” Loomis said. “Everything was trending up, and then that kind of punched us in the gut here in the last homestretch. The majority of our team that has been competing in our lineup this whole year is trending still in the right way, but team wise, we just took some unfortunate hits.”

With no conference championship anymore, it’s an obvious disappointment for athletes who trained and competed all season in preparation for the opportunity to try and compete for a state championship.

“They were all excited for the postseason, and they kind of got it taken away from them, but they are our team models, it’s well known. We feel bad for the guys that are hurt, but it's the next guy up mentality, and we expect you to go out there and fight for your team and do your best,” Loomis said. “So, we expect to have a good showing just on paper, but it's maybe not quite as tight of a battle as it probably would have been with some of those guys in the lineup.”

With Menomonie as the only team that’s beaten everyone and remains undefeated, they entered regionals as the odds-on favorite to be one of the two programs to advance as a team, which is exactly what happened. Even though they fell short of advancing as a team, the rest of the division was actually more balanced and very gettable going into it, Loomis thought.

“The cool thing is we have guys that aren't used to being in the spotlight and aren’t used to having that pressure kind of on them, and they've stepped into the lineup and had to win some big matches for us,” Loomis said. “We also had some guys get wins that didn't win in the first dual against an opponent this year, so they made some improvements and stepped up for the team. That’s why we're still thinking we still got a shot. As long as we can wrestle, we're still going to go there expecting some good things, it's just going to be a little a little harder.”

Coach Loomis says that, although the injuries made advancing to sectionals as a team less likely, he still expected many of their guys to make it as individual competitors, in any event.

“I think we have a good chance to get eight plus guys through. I mean, it could be less or more than that, but just kind of my quick glance at it, I think we have a good chance of around half our lineup making it through,” Loomis said. “Even with those three starters out, I still think we can have a good showing there.”

With the guys’ fate decided at regionals on Saturday, the girls’ part of the postseason has yet to begin.

In the offseason, River Falls made expanding their girls’ wrestling team a priority. They brought in new coaching staff specifically to help build this aspect of their team, and in doing so, attracted a couple new athletes to the fold.

“The two new girls this year are Olivia Luther and Izzy Davenport. They're still hanging in there, and they'll be wrestling at sectionals for us in a couple of weeks. Girls don't have regionals, so they go right to sectionals, so Saturday is just the boys at regionals,” Loomis said. “Those two will be wrestling and then Jenna, who’s made for state the past two years and won the Northern Badger again this year, is wrestling really well right now. She actually went up a weight class from 114 to 120 and says she just feels better there. You can tell it at practice too, so we’re looking forward to seeing what she can do.”

On the guys’ side, the Wildcats have had a lot of contributors to their successes this season. Loomis says it’s hard to narrow down who the top performers have been.

“Our whole team has been performing pretty good, but the upperclassmen have been leading the way. Senior Lincoln McCarty at 215 has been wrestling really well, and he should have a good chance of winning sectionals and he has goals of being high up there on the podium at the state tournament. Jonas Longsdorf at 132, Vinny Costabilo who's a junior at 144 has goals of making it to state and placing,” Loomis said.

In true form, McCarty led the team and took first place at regionals.

“We had a really good week of practice, probably the best we’ve ever had. I just came in, and I knew I was going to dominate. It’s just the mindset of scoring the next point, not focusing on the outcome of the tournament. I was a little nervous going into the last match, but I knew that if I just kept taking him down and started hot, things would start to break,” McCarty said. “This is my favorite part of the year. We trained all season for this.”

It's been an exciting year for the Wildcats. They’ve had a lot of success, and Loomis says the best part is they are returning almost the whole team next season.

“We have only one senior that will be in the lineup this year at regionals, our heavyweight Larry Jackson, and two seniors competing overall including Jenna. Jacob Range is another senior who won’t be returning, but he never really got to compete this year before having hip labrum surgery and wasn't able to return,” Loomis said. “Everybody else is coming back, and there's some buzz around the program, and even around town, you can see good things happening. I feel like the team is starting to believe in themselves with that success we've had, and they know that this team was coming back next year. Whatever happens these next few weeks, they they're still excited about the future. Hopefully we can keep it rolling.”