Belle Plaine opened the 2009-10 wrestling season last week with a split in a double dual on Tuesday and a fourth place finish in a tough field in the Plainsman Invitational on Saturday.
The Plainsmen handled GRNT, 72-21 in one dual, but dropped a 54-12 decision to top-rated Don Bosco in the second dual.
“This has always been a great opportunity for our team,” Coach Bob Yilek said. “It will usually tell us where we are and what we need to work on. Even though we know that it is early in the season, it always a great challenge for our first competition. We ended up with a 1-1 record and found out we have plenty of work to do.
“Wrestling with three open weight classes give the opponents 21 points so we need to fill those weights. We felt we wrestled vey aggressive but experience made a big difference. We dominated GRNT by only losing one match but came up short by only winning three matches against the Dons. They have six wrestlers rated and four top ranked individuals but we went out and wrestled hard against them. Zakk Buch had a pin, Kurtis Osipchack and Tyler Williams both had decisions. The following wrestlers had falls in the GRNT dual meet: Lance Hinschberger, Jack O’Brien, Blake Chekal, Austin Chekal, and Reed Petersen.
Saturday was a tough day for the Plainsmen.
“The first tournament of the season is always a great learning experience for the guys who have not competed at the varsity level,” the coach said. “We placed all 12 wrestlers in the top six but were not totally pleased with the way we wrestled. We know we can perform better and will continue to get better the more we wrestle. We are looking for individual improvement each match we wrestle. If we continue to do this we will progress and win the close matches we lost on Saturday.
Of the 12 wrestlers we placed seven of them in the top three, with six finalists and three champions. Jack O’Brien dominated his finals opponent with a technical fall (15-0), Reed Petersen went out and dominated his opponent from Benton with a fall in the finals, and Tony Jones avenged a loss from last season by beating Gross from Union to claim his championship. Second place finishers were Zakk Buch, Lance Hinschberger and Cody Chekal. Kurtis Osipchack lost in the semis but battled back to place third. Devin Conway, Blake Chekal, Tyler Williams, Austin Chekal and Andrew O’Brien all finished sixth.
“It is early and it is not where you start but where you finish, learn from your mistakes and go back to the practice room with a positive attitude and work on getting better. That’s what we intend to do and prepare for the next match.
“Thanks again for all of the help and support of the Belle Plaine wrestling fans for making this another successful tournament.”