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Wrestlers meet tough competition at Redwood Riot

By
Canaan Petersen for the Star Herald

The Cardinal wrestling team came home empty-handed after attending the Redwood River Riot Dec. 17-18.
The tournament is perhaps the toughest one the team will see this year with 32 teams present in Redwood, according to Luverne senior Braydon Ripka
“This weekend had some very good competition,” Ripka noted. “I went 2-2, which put me in the top 12 of the bracket, so I’m happy about that.”
Ripka posted the best performance of the tournament at 2-2 but just missed the medal rounds. 
After an initial bye, Ripka suffered a 19-3 technical fall to Bold’s Austin Kiecker. 
He rebounded with a 9-3 decision over NLS’s Adam Sandau before recording a 9-2 decision over STPE’s Taylen Travaille. 
Ripka needed one more win in order to secure a medal, but he fell short in an 8-2 to MAGR’s Max Johnson.  
Senior Noah Mehlhaff and freshman Jaden Reisch each recorded one win in the consolation bracket, rounding out the varsity wins.  
“I thought the team wrestled pretty well,” said head coach Jordan Kopp. “Ripka was one match away from placing.”
He mentioned that the younger wrestlers on junior varsity did their share.
“We did well with a second place, third place, and two fourth-place finishers on that side,” Kopp said. “The [varsity] team is very young and the JV side of the tournament also had some good competition. … The JV wrestlers had a good turnout, which is exciting to see.”
The Cardinals enter the holiday break and will travel to Garretson for a tournament on Jan. 8.
“We have about three weeks off until our next event. We are really going to focus on our technique, get some rest and heal up.” Kopp said.
“Next month things are really going to start to take off with a lot of our team events, and we need everyone to be healthy and up to speed.”

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