Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

With all of the talent in this area, the Section 7AAA wrestling tournament is always a doozy, and this year would be no different.

The Rangers opened on Feb. 15 with a match against St. Francis and co-head coach Rich Elliot couldn’t have been happier with the results.

“The boys wrestled great,” he shared. “On Thursday, they exploded for a 45-17 victory over the fifth seed, St. Francis, with two big upsets coming from Andy Kolbow at 125 (pounds), and an even bigger upset for Charlie Janssen (130 pounds) over state-ranked Travis Kirpach by a fall.”

In other action, Ben Morgan defeated Jim Lambeth, 14-3, at 103 pounds, but Luke Opsahl (112) was beaten by Trent Herold, 11-3.

St. Francis also took the 119 pound match, with Brent Molitor earning a major decision over Kevin Nelson, 9-1.

The previously mentioned Kolbow won 3-2 and Janssen got the pin at the 3:04 mark.

Shawn Saxe kept it going for the Rangers at 135 pounds with a 21-6 win, but then Nick Zemke lost a 10-4 decision to Mike Castellano.

After that is was a lot of Forest Lake and very little St. Francis.

Lee Smith got the pin at 145 pounds; Brandon Yetter earned a 9-7 decision at 152; Brent Kolbow (160 pounds) picked up a 3-1 decision over Kevin Daudt; Lucas Munkelwitz continued his dominant ways with a pin over John Anderson, but Robby Kriesel was able to get the best of Trevor Osterbauer in the 189-pound weight class.

Finishing it off for the Rangers were Josh Mabry with a pin at 215 pounds, and Collin Peterson getting a 3-2 decision at heavyweight.

“As for the semifinal loss to the eventual champion Anoka,” Elliot noted “they (Forest Lake) wrestled well, but just didn’t get any breaks.”

Forest Lake was defeated 32-23.

“Again, they wrestled hard and I can’t fault any of them for not giving 110 percent,” Elliot said. “Hopefully, we can turn some of those losses around and send a good group down to the state tournament this weekend.”

Against Anoka, it didn’t start well for Elliot’s crew as Morgan, Opsahl, Nelson, Andy Kolbow, Janssen, Saxe and Zemke would lose before Smith could bring in a 14-9 win at 145 pounds.

Yetter kept the momentum going with a 13-5 major decision, and then there was some juggling in the Ranger line-up in comparison to most matches.

Caleb Corrow was pinned by Anoka’s Jake Deitchler at 160 pounds, but Brent Kolbow was able to move up to 171 and defeat Adam Armstrong, 16-3.

This pushed Munkelwitz up to 189 pounds, where he got the 4-0 decision.

Osterbauer returned to his familiar spot at 215 pounds, and also returned to his familiar winning ways with a 5-4 decision; and ho-hum, yawn, Collin Peterson won again at heavyweight.

The wrestlers will be back on the mats this weekend as they compete in the individual tournament at Champlin Park. The tourney begins Friday afternoon and runs through Saturday.

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