By Reagan Hoverman

The Prescott High School wrestling team had a couple of wrestlers bring home some individual hardware at the Chippewa Falls and Arcadia tournaments throughout the last week.

Chippewa Falls Tournament Benny Olson paced the Cardinals with a second-place finish at 106 pounds. Olson ran into a familiar foe in the finals, Brady Gesler of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser-Prairie Farm. Prescott head coach Ross Wargula spoke about the tournament.

“Benny has wrestled Gesler three times now this season. Each time he has gotten a little bit better. For the second time in a match with Gesler, he scored the first takedown. We have to get better at wrestling on the mat, especially with Gesler. We will see him at the sectional tournament in a few weeks and need to improve our mat wrestling.”

SCC, Ellsworth Triangular After competing in the Chippewa Falls tournament, Prescott competed in the Saint Croix Central and Ellsworth Triangular. Olson and Nolan Thomley led the Cardinals on the evening, each going 2-0. Wargula recapped the triangular featuring three Middle Border Conference teams.

“It was great to have Nolan back on the mat. You could tell it was his first match in a few weeks,” he said. “He did some great things and knocked some rust off. Nolan is a very dedicated kid and knowing that I know his conditioning will get back to where it was preinjury. Benny displayed some incredible guts in both of his matches. He is wrestling very well. The only tweak we need to make is finishing matches and periods. Eliminating that tiny bit of complacency will be key toward the end of the season. He fell behind to DeLong of SCC and got dinged a little bit in the match but dug deep to pull out the win.”

Arcadia Tournament

Prescott’s top finishers included Olson, who got second in the 106-pound bracket and Thomley, who earned a thirdplace finish in the 152-pound contest. Steven Atherton also secured his first pinfall of the season in the 138-pound bracket.

Culley Anderson recorded two pins in the 132-pound matches and Lono Thomason earned a seventh-place finish in the 160-pound bracket. Wargula spoke about the Arcadia tournament results.

“Nolan was very workman- like,” Wargula said. “He’s still working his way back to 100%. In the championship bracket, he ran into a state placewinner from Cadott. I think that if he’s 100%, that match plays out differently and it is much closer. Nolan did some great things on the day, recording three pins. The sky’s the limit for him. Benny had a solid day as well, dominating his pool and moving into the championship bracket. Benny faced Garrett DeLong in the championship semifinals, winning 9-5. In the finals, he faced a state qualifier from Cadott. Benny took him down and had him on his back. There was a mad scramble and Benny got caught. It was the most upset I’ve seen him after a loss. He will use that frustration as motivation going forward. Benny has some high aspirations this season and he is going to be pushed toward them. As we close out our regular season over the next couple of weeks, Benny will face at least four ranked kids in Minnesota. That will be good for him down the stretch.”

Prescott is back in action on Friday, Jan. 27, for another triangular at Hastings High School. Those matches are slated to begin at 5 p.m.