Sunday, December 23, 2018

Meet The Eagles Night

     The dual against Mitchell brought a good crowd as it was the first home dual of the year, the only one held at Golden Eagles Arena this year. The two other home dates will be at the old Civic Arena. It was also Meet the Eagles Night where the wrestlers take turns signing team pictures after the dual for the young fans. It was a great atmosphere and a good crowd.
     The team is currently ranked 2nd in the state behind Rapid City Stevens. You would think with that high of a ranking that we would have no problem in a dual against an unranked Mitchell Kernels team but that is not the case. Having 5 kids ranked one or two can earn a lot of team points in a tournament but in a dual format you need contributors across the board. Although everybody wrestled tough The Kernels picked up 8 wins, 7 of which were via bonus points. This lead to the 40-29 victory for Mitchell.
     Much like the dual against Pierre last year, the coin toss played a major part in the outcome. Mitchell won the toss which made Aberdeen show the wrestler first in a few key weight classes. Both coaches juggled their lineups around and held back some JV wrestlers to try to gain any advantage possible. Had Aberdeen won the flip I believe they would have won the dual.
     The night started out with #1 ranked Brenden Salfrank dominating his opponent earning a tech fall and putting the Eagles up 5-0. Mitchell would counter that with a pin at 113 before Brock Martin would earn a 4-1 decision at 120 pounds. At 126 this is a spot where the coin toss worked to Mitchell's advantage. #1 ranked, Jacob Moore had to report first, Mitchell weighed in state placer, Kyler Bauder who has been hurt all year. Unbeknownst to Aberdeen, they had no intentions of wrestling him, just if we decided not to send anyone out then he would step out to take the forfeit. This forced us to send Jacob out thinking Bauder would come out. He didn't and they forfeited the weight class. I would assume if they had to report first they wouldn't have sent anyone out then we would have bumped Jacob up a weight. These are some of the reasons why a dual can be so exciting. Not only does every match count in a big way but there can be a quite a lot of strategy that you don't find in a tournament setting.
     After this move Mitchell rattled off six straight wins before #1 ranked Will Jarrott earned a pin for his 100th career victory. Aberdeen's slim hopes of winning the dual stayed alive as #2 ranked Brock Baker also secured a pin. This brought the Eagles within 10 points with 2 matches to go but Mitchell's #1 ranked Carter Max won at 220 lbs putting the dual out of reach. That left one match to go where #2 ranked Kaden Johnson found himself in an unexpected position. Down by a point late in the 3rd period he couldn't seem to find an opening to get a takedown. They wrestled out of bounds with 3 seconds to go. On the restart Johnson bull rushed Mitchell's Beau Foote, taking him down as time expired to finish the night in exciting fashion.
     A little about Jarrott and his 100th win. A nice accomplishment for the Senior. He is a two time state place winner and a 3 time state qualifier who has been in the program through youth and middle school. He's hoping to add a state high school title to his two state youth titles. He is a physical wrestler who is tough to score on. Congratulations Will!
     Aberdeen's next action will be the incredibly tough Rumble on the Red tournament held in the Fargo dome on Dec 28 and 29. There will be a total of 85 teams competing in both the varsity division and the junior varsity division representing the states of MN, ND, SD, NE, WI, AZ. It is not uncommon for a weight class to have over 20 ranked kids from their respective states! Last year Aberdeen placed 3 kids, Jacob Moore got 3rd, Collin Haar earned 7th and Kaden Johnson 8th in the varsity division. I would expect Aberdeen to have 5 or so in the varsity division and the rest in the JV portion. Hopefully a lot of kids can put together a good weekend and find the podium.
     One more thing, a great Christmas present for these guys is the 2 pound allowance they get on the 25th. Most, if not all, of these guys are pretty happy to get those two pounds.









No comments:

Post a Comment