ELLSWORTH — River Falls, Spring Valley/Elmwood, Prescott and Ellsworth all were on hand for the annual opening week wrestling tournament, the Ellsworth Invitational on Saturday. The tournament featured 14 talented squads from all over the area, with Holmen earning the team win.

River Falls took sixth as a team, SVE seventh, Ellsworth eighth and Prescott 12th. All four teams showed great signs of life.

The Wildcats had a great event, finishing in the top four at eight different weight classes. The placers were Jacob Hutchins (first), Oliver Larson (second), Waylon Deaton (second), Felix Wahlquist (fourth), Braxton Hoernke (fourth), Rieder Loomis (fourth), Caleb Rasmussen (fourth) and Isaiah Black (fourth).

“I saw a lot of variance in performance. We have a good core of juniors and one senior that are pretty steady,” Head Coach Cam Loomis said. “There was ups and downs. Kind of expected for this time of year.”

With the Hutchins win at 190 as well as the Deaton and Larson runner-up finishes at 132 and 138, the top-end of the River Falls team is setting up nicely. The three are all juniors, so they still have a chance to blossom even further.

River Falls wrestled defending Division 2 State Champions St. Croix Falls ahead of the weekend and seven of the eight top four finishers Saturday wrestled someone from Holmen, a favorite for the Division 1 title this season.

“We just wanted to know where we stood right away,” Loomis said.

The River Falls girls also had a strong weekend at St. Michael-Albertville.

“I saw a lot of good effort, good determination. They held themselves accountable and pushed through each and every situation,” Girls Wrestling Head Coach Austen Hakes said.

The team had two wrestlers when Hakes took over this offseason, and they are now approaching 10. Having a program established early has given them a leg up on newer programs to some degree.

“It’s still a growing sport. It’s been, I believe, one of the fastest growing sports in the last few years nationwide,” Hakes said. “We’ve tripled the team since I got the position.”

SVE had a massive day as one of the smaller schools in the competition. The placers were Jack Steinmeyer (second), Sam Schmitt (second), Tyler Vanasse (third), Asher Turner (third), Austin Krentz (fifth), Landon Forster (fifth) and Dean O’Meara (eighth).

SVE is a threat to small town wrestling programs this year under first-year coach Ryan Turner. The crew showed they can compete against some of the top teams, finishing one place behind a strong program in River Falls.

Ellsworth had a notable 10 placers, being Breken Young (third), Sawyer Van Horn (fifth), Hunter Bench (fifth), Parker Lampman (fifth), Hunter Halverson (sixth), Matthew Lundstrom (sixth), Jordy Anderson (sixth), Kaden Steensen (seventh), Jace Anderson (seventh) and Tyler Lewis (eighth).

“We learned a lot about where we’re at,” Head Coach Carson Huppert said. “There’s a lot of inexperienced people that are on the varsity team this year, especially through the middle weights.”

Huppert said Ellsworth led the event in pins, which will be crucial in some of the coming conference duals.

“We’re not a huge individual tournament team. We’re more of a dual meet team,” Huppert said. “Our numbers are big, so we can compete with a lot of teams that way.

“We’re a really solid team from 106 to heavyweight,” Huppert said.

Prescott had three placers, all being freshmen. The placers were Bryce Feran (fourth), Gunnar Doyle (sixth) and Adyn Allsop (eighth). Prescott is also coached by a first-year head coach in Nick Zajac. He said the team is starting to build a culture/program and the young wrestlers are a large part of that.

“Great attitudes, kids came out and worked hard, got after it,” Zajac said. “They stepped up as a team and improved over the weekend.”

The upperclassmen have waterfalled leadership onto those younger wrestlers, which has led to a great environment in the wrestling room.

“The freshmen that are stepping on the mat right now have been wrestling pretty much their entire lives,” Zajac said. “They’ve been prepping for the past few years to get to the varsity level… That’s just the start for them.”