[email protected]

“We’ve had better days,” said Coach Mark Matzek.

That summed up Saturday for the Ellsworth wrestling team as they fell to Amery 58-12. Amery finished the Middle Border season undefeated and is ranked second in the state.

“They have a very strong team, and we’re down some guys with injuries. We have some health problems right now. We had several injuries last week.”

Notably, Corey Poellinger who would have been at 120 in the post-season was lost for post-season with an injury.

“That really hurts,” he said. The Panthers have a couple other wrestles out as well.

“Amery was more physical than us. Once they got rolling, we didn’t have the power to stop it,” said Matzek.

William Penn (113) and Zack Peterson (152) scored wins for the Panthers, and Ryan Matzek (182) won by forfeit.

The Amery match was the first in quad meet at River Falls. The Panthers went on to defeat Menomonie 42-30 and fell to the host Wildcats 44-31.

Ellsworth got forfeits at two weight classes to help against Menomonie. Picking up wins were Braden Matzek (fall at 145), Ivan Veenendall (11-1 at 152), Eli Kohl (fall at 160), Ryan Matzek (12-1 at 182, Ian Matzek (12-3 at 195) and Louis Jahnke (fall at 220).

Winning against River Falls were Penn by forfeit, Braden Matzek 11-0, Anthony Madsen at 170 8-5, Jahnke by fall, Ian Matzek by far and Kyle Anschutz at 285 by fall in just 12 seconds.

The Panthers compete in WIAA Regionals Saturday at Arcadia. There’s no team champion from Regionals. The team champion from Sectionals wrestles at team state this year.

The meet should be a battle between Ellsworth and Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/ Melrose- Mindoro for superiority.

“We need to get healthy if we can this week. We need to make some adjustments and really over perform on Sunday. We’ve done it before, we can do it again,” said Matzek.

Photos by Gaylen Bicking.

by John McLoone