After three weeks of rest, recuperation and practice, the Luverne wrestling team returned to action in Garretson, South Dakota, Jan. 8.
Two Cardinals secured medals and the team earned over 10 wins.
Braydon Ripka led the Cardinals again by achieving his best tournament result yet, going 2-1 to earn second place at 145 pounds.
Despite having a winning record, Ripka did not get seeded and drew the second-seed wrestler from Groton in the quarterfinals. He won an 11-7 decision over Christian Ehresmann and advanced to the semifinals.
Ripka downed Tri-Valley’s Landyn Reiser in an 8-2 decision before losing to Lucas Hueser from Elk Point- Jefferson in the finals. In a hard-fought match, he dropped an 8-4 decision.
“I went into the tournament not being seeded and beat out the second seed my first match.” Ripka said. “I wrestled my way to the first- and second-place match but came up short.”
Wrestling at 120 pounds, Luverne’s Leif Ingebretsen achieved his best result of the season going 2-2, receiving a fourth-place medal.
After losing his initial match to Keaton Preheim of Marion, South Dakota, Ingebretsen secured two falls in the consolation rounds before falling to Brayden Wiese of Flandreau, South Dakota, in the third-place final.
“Overall, the team did all right, maybe not as well as we could’ve done,” Ingebretsen said. “I feel like I wrestled fairly well on Saturday.”
Luverne’s Brody Kopp at 106 and Hudson Hough wrestling at 126 each won two matches but were unable to reach the medal round.
Matt Gangestad at 113 and Jacob Madison wrestling at 170 also secured wins but didn’t get through the consolation rounds.
“We had a good showing again when we crossed the border,” said head coach Jordan Kopp. “There is not much love as far as seedings and draws go, but the fact we had two wrestlers that were unseeded place — and a few fall a match short — turned some heads.”
The Cardinals travel to St. James on Saturday for the Big South Conference Tournament before returning home again to host a triangular on Tuesday, Jan. 18.
“The team is excited to get back in action, especially the team side of things. We just need to bring the energy and confidence,” Kopp said. “We are a young, talented group, so we may not be able to overpower by numbers, but we just need to go out one match at a time.”