Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

It may not have been the most challenging of weekends for the Forest Lake wrestling team, but there's something to be said for entering a match as the clear favorite and then delivering on that expectation.

With final scores of 79-0 and 398.5 to 227.0, the Rangers delivered as if they were sponsored by FedEx.

On Saturday, Jan. 13, Forest Lake crossed into Wisconsin for the St. Croix Falls Tournament, and after accumulating 398.5 points on the day, Forest Lake might not be invited back.

Out of the other 10 teams, St. Croix Falls was the next closest competitor with 227 points.

"I think, excluding the final round, there was 55 pins out of 64 matches that our kids had," assistant coach Joe Kunshier said. "It was good experience just for us to see teams that we've never seen before."

Leading off the list of champions begins with Ben Morgan at 103 pounds, who as a 7th grader is already 20-1 on the year, and beat two ranked Wisconsin wrestlers on Saturday.

Senior Luke Opsahl won at 112 pounds, and he was joined by Charlie Janssen (130 pounds), Shawn Saxe (135 pounds), Lee Smith (145), Luke Munkelwitz (171) and Collin Peterson at heavyweight.

After watching the hard work and sacrifice that Smith has put in, Kunshier was really pleased to see the senior win his first varsity meet.

Also of note was Logan Robinson who made it all the way to the finals in the 189 pound class before losing on a referees call with just seconds remaining.

"That was a real nice confidence booster for him," Kunshier said. "Logan only started as a 10th grader -- to be where he is right now as a senior is a big accomplishment for him."

Besides Robinson, other Rangers to make it to the finals were Kevin Nelson (119), Brandon Yetter (152) and Brent Kolbow (160).

Not one wrestler finished below third, with Andy Kolbow, Nick Zemke and Trevor Osterbauer picking up those slots.

Kunshier and the other coaches were happy to see how Andy Kolbow kept fighting to earn third place

Forest Lake hosted Cretin-Derham Hall on Thursday night, and after Morgan and Opsahl opened the match with pins, there was little doubt where this one was headed.

Nelson and Nate Arcand earned pins in well under two minutes, and the Saxe got his pin at 3:07.

After Ben Ulrich (140) won by major decision, Mitch Koenig made a pin at 3:18 for a victory at 145 pounds.

Caleb Corrow, Robinson, Josh Mabry and Matt Schwartz all contributed pins while Munkelwitz tangled with Cretin's best wrestler at 171 pounds and won, 5-1.

The two wins by the wrestling team pushes its record to 12-1 as White Bear Lake comes up for "The Main Event on Thursday (today). After that, it's off to Cambridge-Isanti on Saturday morning for a day of serious competition.

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