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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Head coach Billy Pierce said his wrestling team would improve as the season wore on, and now Forest Lake is beginning to deliver on that expectation.
After seeing some success at the gigantic Rumble on the Red to close out December, the Rangers hosted the Forest Lake Quadrangular on Friday, Jan. 4. The boys came away with a spotless 3-0 record against Bemidji, Roseville and Mounds View.
“I thought they looked really, really good on Friday night,” Pierce said of his team. “We’ve definitely come a long ways in a short period of time.”
An easy way for Pierce and his coaching staff to track the squad’s progress is by looking back at last month’s depressing loss at White Bear Lake.
“We weren’t where we wanted to be,” Pierce said.
But since then, Roseville defeated White Bear, and now Forest Lake easily handled the Raiders, 48-27.
“We’ve been working on areas where we’ve been losing matches and addressing those,” Pierce shared. “It’s paid off. Now we need to focus on winning matches, and I think the kids are taking hold of that.”
The winning began at 103 pounds, where Tony Chamberlin went 3-0.
Pierce thought last Friday could be a confidence booster for Chamberlin, after the senior won on two pins and a major decision.
Ben Morgan kept on winning, going undefeated, with the help of two pins of his own as well as a technical fall.
It’s been a few weeks since Kevin Nelson was in the line-up, but now that his sprained knee is back in order, he was able to go 3-0 at 130 pounds.
Stepping in and dropping down to 135 pounds was Cody Kendrick, and Pierce was ecstatic with his performance.
“It’s been a godsend,” he shared, after Kendrick went 2-1. “He did a great job and it was great to have a senior in that position.”
Kendrick’s lone loss was a close one, to Mounds View’s Matt Piersak, who is ranked in the top 10.
Another nice addition was Mitch Koenig, who was moving up and down and switching weight classes with Charlie Janssen at 145 and 152 pounds.
Koenig went 2-1, while Janssen was 3-0.
Pierce added that Janssen picked up his 100th career victory at the Rumble, so now the sophomore is in line to reach 200 victories for his high school career, which is incredibly rare.
Both Brent Kolbow (189 lbs.) and Josh Mabry (215 lbs.) went 2-1 on the night.
The positive momentum from the quadrangular should come in handy this weekend, as the boys host Woodbury on Thursday, and then travel to No. 6 ranked Anoka on Friday, Jan. 11.
Forest Lake Quadrangular
Bemidji 45, Mounds View 28
Bemidji 37, Roseville 27
Rangers 38, Bemidji 29
Rangers 48, Roseville 27
Rangers 40, Mounds View 27
* Mounds View and Roseville did not wrestle each other because they will have a conference match later this season.
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