The Cardinal wrestling team traveled to Flandreau, South Dakota, Saturday to kick off the 2021-22 season and came home with three pieces of hardware.
Nearly all the Luverne wrestlers recorded wins, and two seventh-grade wrestlers in their first varsity tournament placed third and fourth.
“Our guys wrestled well for the first tournament of the year,” said head coach Jordan Kopp. “We had three on the podium.”
Senior Braydon Ripka went 3-1 at 152 pounds to secure a third-place finish on the podium. “The first tournament went well. It feels good to break off the rust a little bit,” he said.
At 106, Brody Kopp fought his way back after an initial first-round loss with three consecutive wins before losing his last match for a fourth-place finish.
Josh Stroh, at 113, won his first-round match before losing to the second-place finisher in the semifinals. He went on to pin his next two opponents to achieve his third place spot on the podium.
Coach Kopp said Stroh and Kopp were not the only seventh-graders to record wins. “All of our seventh-graders (four) that wrestled received their first varsity win,” he said.
“We have a really young team and two of our seventh-graders placed in the top four, which is awesome to see,” Ripka said.
Matt Gangestad, Hudson Hough, Zach Bradley, Jacob Madison and Ayden Bonnett each recorded a 1-2 mark on the day and did not place.
“Bradley got hurt and injury defaulted out. Otherwise, he would have placed, and a few others were one match away,” coach Kopp said.
Ripka said winning in wrestling is a mindset.
“It’s knowing you are just as good as whoever you step on the mat with,” he said.
“I think a lot of us could definitely improve what we’re thinking going out onto the mat. We proved this weekend that we all can hang with anyone on the mat.”
The Cardinals travel to Jackson for a tournament Saturday, Dec. 11.