It was a great day Saturday for the Ellsworth wrestling team as they gathered on the mat at the close of the Middle Border Conference Tournament to claim their championship trophy for the 17th straight year.

Ellsworth amassed 238.5 team points as senior Charlie Stuhl joined elite company in becoming a four-time Middle Border Conference Champion.

“His brother won four state championships but he was only a three-time Middle Border champion,” coach Mark Matzek said after congratulating Stuhl for the honor.

Stuhl approached the day and milestone in stride.

“It was just another tournament. I just wanted to work hard and put points on the board,” he said.

Matzek looked back on the day and what lies ahead as his team assembled their gear and prepared for the bus ride back to Ellsworth after the tournament, held in New Richmond. He huddled with his team after the trophy ceremony.

What did he tell them?

“I told them they can’t be satisfied,” he said. “We were happy with the performance that the team had overall today. For the most part, we closed the gap on some people we had lost to or we turned the tables. They competed hard. That’s what we really looked forward to and asked them to do, to compete hard and the winning and losing will take care of itself.”

It’s back to practice and preparation for the Panthers this week. WIAA Regionals are Saturday. Ellsworth competes in the Arcadia Regional, along with Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau. Melrose-Mindoro, Arcadia, Black River Falls, Osseo-Fairchild.Augusta/Fall Creek, Prescott and West Salem/Bangor.

“We have to get back to training early this week… Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, really pushing hard and getting stronger, getting better technically as well and go back Thursday and Friday and taper off of them so they can really put together the best tournament of the year on Saturday, because that’s what we need. We need our team to have the best tournament that they’ve wrestled to this date a week from today,” he said.

Following Ellsworth were Baldwin-Woodville 190, Amery 186.5, Osceola 141, New Richmond 140.5, Saint Croix Central 137, Prescott 85 and Somerset 50.

In addition to Stuhl’s championship at 138, Cole Nelson was Middle Border champion at 120 and Carter Huppert won the title at 152.

Taking second for the Panthers were Cale Ekholm at 106, Kyle Anschutz at 220 and Logan Peterson at 285.

Every Ellsworth wrestler was in at least the third place match. Taking third were Corey Poellinger at 113, Bailey Poellinger at 132, Braden Matzek at 145 and Ryan Matzek at 170. Fourth place finishers were Jack Voelker at 126, Eli Rohl at 160, Sam Allyn at 182 and Ian Matzek at 195.