Prep wrestling regionals this weekend
Head coaches for Ellsworth and Spring Valley/Elmwood's prep wrestling teams are confident their squads can come away with WIAA regional titles again this Saturday.
Coaches for Ellsworth and Spring Valley/Elmwood's prep wrestling teams are confident their squads can come away with WIAA regional titles once again this Saturday.
No. 4 ranked Ellsworth and Prescott will compete in the WIAA Division 2 St. Croix Central Regional at Hammond Saturday. The meet begins at 10:30 a.m. Meanwhile No. 10 Spring Valley/Elmwood will be at the Division 3 Cadott Regional. This meet will start at 11 a.m.
Competing with the Panthers and Cardinals will be a strong squad from St. Croix Central along with Baldwin-Woodville, Bloomer/Colfax and Cornell/Gilman/Lake Holcombe. The D-3 regional will have four Dunn-St. Croix Conference teams in SVE, No. 6 Glenwood City, Boyceville, Mondovi along with Cadott and Durand.
The top team in each meets not only wins the title but goes onto team sectionals on Tuesday. Ellsworth hosts in Division 2 and Glenwood City does the same in Division 3. Both meets begin at 6 p.m. The top two finishers in each weight class advance to individual sectionals next Saturday. Somerset hosts in Division 2 and the Division 3 meet will again be in Osseo at Osseo-Fairchild High School with the Independence/Gilmanton co-op program as the hosts.
Both Ellsworth and Spring Valley/Elmwood won regional titles in their respective regionals last year. Ellsworth did so for the eighth straight time while SVE won its first crown since 1999. Both have high hopes for this season as they both are coming off impressive performances in conference meets a week ago.
EHS won its 34th Middle Border Conference title. The Panthers were able to get the bulk of their team down a weight class and crowned five champions, decisively winning the meet in the final round. All of the Purple's wrestlers finished in the top four and head coach Chad Steldt hopes the Panthers can pull off another team accomplishment tomorrow.
"Our goals is to qualify everyone for individual sectionals," Steldt said. "We're not where we completely want to be as a team in terms of a set line-up but I tell you what, we were together as team at least week's conference meet. I really liked the way our kids pulled for each other and that's going to help us a lot in the regional meet."
One change for EHS in its line-up will be Max Peterson fitting in at 145 pounds.
SVE, meanwhile, had its best-ever finish in the BRC/D-SC Wrestling Jamboree since the meet first started in 2003. The Redbirds took second behind No. 6 Hudson and head coach Carter Turner was most pleased with the way the team bounced back quickly after a dual meet loss to Boyceville which cost them an undisputed Dunn-St. Croix Conference title.
"The loss to Boyceville really opened our kids eyes and made them refocus," Turner said. "The timing was good too because we just had a day to get ready for the (Jamboree)so we didn't have time to dwell on the Boyceville dual. The kids really reset themselves well and had their best tournament of the season so far. I was very happy with the way they wrestled."
Spring Valley/Elmwood will have to keep up its momentum from last week. In a smaller meet with fewer clubs but some good ones like Glenwood City, Boyceville and Cadott, every point will count to determining a winner.
"The team score is going to be tight the whole way," Turner said. "We know one slip-up will be costly and we know we have a lot of young wrestlers who will be in their first regional meet. But I'm confidence they have th3e experience now from our tough schedule, and by competing in big tournament themselves and watching their brothers compete as well that they will be more than ready and capable to wrestle well."
Prescott will look to get as many kids they can through to sectionals and have good chances of doing so from 106 pounds down to 160 pounds.
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