Eagle wrestlers win South Central meet

By JEN SEAVEY

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- The Eagles surprised the rest of the South Central Conference wrestling scene by rising from their third place finish in the dual meet season to win the traveling trophy at the SCC tournament by an 8.5 point margin late Saturday afternoon.

New Ulm had 206.5 points, and St. James ended up with 198 points. Waseca took third place with 188 points, and Blue Earth Area came in fourth with 175.5. St. Peter had 109.5 points, and Fairmont was at the bottom with 85.

"This is big news," New Ulm coach Dar Arndt said. "This is some of the best wrestling in the state right here.

"Anybody who stayed home in New Ulm missed a great performance by a great bunch of kids," Arndt said.

Before the 275 weight class championship, St. James trailed New Ulm by just 3.5 points. The heavyweight match between New Ulm's Travis Aufderheide and St. James' Jared Schwanz was to be the deciding factor in who would win the tournament.

With all eyes on the 275 championship match, the wrestling was intense, and the match was scoreless through most of the second period. Aufderheide made a reversal with :20 left in the second. Schwanz escaped for a point, but Aufderheide made another reversal to lead 4-1 and maintained control of Schwanz to seal the SCC victory for New Ulm.

"Everyone seems to like to tell me exactly what to do, because I am the last match," Aufderheide said with a smile. "I'd wrestled this kid about 50 times since we were little, so I knew what was going to happen. We are probably about 50/50 on wins."

Aufderheide actually wrestled up a weight class from the 215 that he normally wrestles, so coach Arndt says it is even more of an accomplishment.

"We figured that this is what he can do for us," Arndt said.

But Aufderheide was not alone in first place finishers for New Ulm. Seniors Paul Ruch and Matt Wenninger won their weight classes. Ruch beat St. James senior Kit Miller 11-3 in a major decision in the 152 lb. Championship.

"It was the perfect end to a senior year, for the conference," Ruch said. "It means I'm right on track."

Matt Wenninger beat junior Jeff Prange of Waseca for the top spot in the 160 weight class.

Both were big wins, because St. James and Waseca were close behind New Ulm.

"Ruch and Wenninger are just awesome," Arndt said. "They put it on the line and won it."

The team was also looking for some people to win matches they weren't expected to win. Both sophomore Kyle LeBrun (189) and eighth-grader Brett LeBrun (215) took fourth in their classes; sophomore Curt Thoreson also placed fourth in the 135 weight class, losing by fall in :26 to St. Peter senior Jeff Holterman.

Seventh-grader Adam Hoffman lost 11-0 to BEA's Kurt Sohn in the 103 championship match, taking second place, and eighth-grader Neal Wenninger took second place at 112 when he lost an 8-0 decision to BEA's Eric Nagel. Another second place finisher was junior Dan Mielke, who was beaten by Waseca's Dan Robb in the 145 championship.

New Ulm freshman Chris Koob also placed second when he lost by major decision, 11-3, to St. James' Chris Werth in the 125 championship. Coach Arndt said that although Koob was major decisioned, he kept from being pinned, which still helped the team.

"Chris Koob did well," Matt Wenninger said. "He lost to a very tough kid."

"It was really good for him," Ruch said.

Jeff Gieseke, a freshman for New Ulm, beat Waseca's Brian Sommers in the first period by fall for third place in the 119 weight class; junior Mike Kral also placed third with a 7-5 win over Chris Langr from Waseca. Eric Kral decisioned Fairmont's Jason Castillo 16-13 for a fifth place finish.

"It was just a team effort. Twelve of our 14 placed," Arndt said. "We had our teeth sharpened up for this one.

"The guys were ready to wrestle," he said. "And we did something nobody though we would do."

"This is a big confidence booster for the team," Matt Wenninger said. Wenninger, along with the rest of the team is now focusing on Sections. The top finishing team at Sections will advance to State, and the top two finishers in the individual tournament will advance.

According to Arndt, the team is now "sky high," ready for team Sections, which will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday in Prior Lake.