The Merrill wrestling team may have finished 10th in last week’s home-hosted 18-team Northern Exposure tournament, but it was left wondering what could have been.
The Jays only dropped a pair of close matches in Monday’s pool play, and they knocked off eventual champion Oconto Falls 40-37. The two losses dropped them to fourth in their pool and winning twice on Tuesday was only enough to push them to 10th.
“Maybe we could have won it, if we start training that way and act that way (they did in the Falls’ match),” MHS coach Scott Arneson said. “Hopefully Northern Exposure woke these guys up and we start a new season. Let’s clean the slate and clean our attitudes and see if we can do better. I still believe we can win the regional, but it’s going to take a change in all of the kids. We’ve got a solid month to hone all these guys’ skills.”
Mason Reinhardt (170 pounds, 6 pins, 1 forfeit), Scott Arneson (138, 3 P) and Aidan Ball (113, 2 P) all ended up undefeated.
“That’s a highlight, too,” Arneson said. “Mason wrestled really solid. Scottie wrestled well and beat the #4 kid in D2 and the #1 guy in D3. Devon Schultz wrestled aggressively, too.”
Schultz (120, 3 P) and Christian Kleinschmidt (285, 4 P) both went 6-1, while Tanner Pettit (145, 4 P) finished 5-2. Hunter Welch (132, 2 P), Lucas Lee (170, 2 P) and Seth Collins (195, 3 P) went 4-3, Brendan Leger (126, 2 P) was 3-2, Riley Kurtz (182, 1 P) was 3-4, and Collin Zoellner (220) went 2-5. Brandon McCarthy (152, 1 P) was 1-5.
Merrill romped over River Ridge (72-6) and the Huskies (70-6) to start, but wrapped losses to Waunakee (36-30) and Mineral Point (40-32) around the Falls’ win. On Tuesday, the Jays prevailed over New London (42-22) and Rice Lake (51-22).