By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Saturday Merrill hosted the Bluejay Challenge at Merrill High School. The Bluejays had a solid day finishing in fifth place as a team with 340 points. The Bluejays also had five individuals finish in the top five of their weight class.
“This was a great tournament for our team,” comments head coach Brian Suchocki. “Although we didn’t have any individual champions we had a lot of good competition which will help us down the stretch.”
Noah Bolling finished as runner up in the heavyweight division, losing to the second ranked division three heavyweight wrestler in the state.
“Noah competed with Max in the summer for junior nationals,” coach Suchocki said. “It shows that the extra time put in the summer does pay off. Even though Noah lost a tough battle in overtime it was good for him to have that type of competition.”
Tanner Depies ended his day with a third place finish in the 120 pound weight class, Brody Gehrke finished in fourth place at 138 pounds, Bradley Leiskau would get fifth place at 170 pounds and Casey Hoffman would also finish with fifth in the 145 pound weight class,
The Merrill wrestlers will be back in action on Thursday (Jan. 11) as they host the SPASH Panthers at 7 p.m.
Bluejays fall to Marshfield
On Thursday night the Merrill wrestling team traveled to Marshfield to take on the Tigers in a conference matchup. Merrill had a tough time as the Tigers took them down by a score of 52-18.
The 138 pound weight class would kick off the action in Marshfield as the Tigers got off to a good start winning by major decision. Merrill would fall in the 145 pound class by major decision as well and lose by decision in the 152 pound weight class before getting their first win. Wyatt Koehler wrestled at 160 pounds for the Bluejays and would pin his opponent in 3:24. The Blujays would lose in the 170 weight class before Jake Spoehr got a 8-7 win at 182.
After being pinned in the 195 and 220 weight classes the Bluejays bounced back with a pin by Noah Bolling in the 285 weight class. Merrill continued their winning ways in the 106 weight class where Trevor Schenzel got a 6-3 win. A forfeit in the 113 weight class was followed by Merrill getting pinned in under a minute in both the 120 and 126 weight classes to end the match, as Marshfield took the 52-18 victory.