Three Raiders wrestlers advance to state

by Coach Barthel

On Friday and Saturday, the Raiders traveled to New York Mills for the section individual tournament. Armed with 11 wrestlers, they took to the mat with hopes of qualifying many men for the state tournament. After all the dust settled on Saturday, the Raiders were left with three qualifiers for the state tournament. Jake Braaten was the champion and Amos Schmidt and Colin Turchin placed second and will be attending this week’Äôs state tournament.
At 112 pounds, seventh grader Hayden Truax went 2-2 and was one match away from placing, ending his season with a 14-16 record.
Kasey Horn wrestled at 125 and went 3-3 placing 6th and wrestling a good tournament losing to the champion 4-3 in the second round. He could have won the whole thing. He was just a couple moves away from going to state this year, but he ended the season with a 20-20 record.
Josh Weekly at 130, went 2-2 at the tournament and ended the season with a 6-19 record. He wrestled much better the second half of the season and looks to be a solid starter next year.
Senior Dakota Aeling stepped on the mat at 140 for the Raiders and went 3-2 making it to the finals, but lost in the finals with very close scores and then lost his true second match to end his season. He wrestled great on Friday, but on Saturday it was just not going to happen for him. He ended the season with a 19-16 record and a career record of 46-71. He has come a long way the past 5 years that I have been here and he will be missed next year.
At 145 pounds, Dillon Card went 3-3 and placed 6th. He never loses by much and looks to take over next year for the departed Dakota Aeling. Dillon's record for the season was 8-23.

Jake Braaten won his fourth section title and took care of business in all of his matches going 4-0 on the tournament and has a season record of 29-2. He will wrestle next week at the state tournament.
Andrew Bounds wrestled at 160 pounds for the Raiders and went 1-2 and did not place. He had one of the tougher brackets of the tournament and wrestled well. His season record is 10-20 and he looks to fill the shoes of Jake Braaten next year.
Amos Schmidt went 3-1 and placed second in the section qualifying him for the state. His loss in the finals to Kevin Hahn of Parkers is only his 4th loss of the season which he has won a team best 34 matches.
Senior Justin Kern went 2-2 and placed 4th. He finished the season with a 10-6 record, but if it wasn’Äôt for an injury mid-season he would still be wrestling. His season started with him defeating Kevin Hahn and a few other tough wrestlers, but he was never able to get back on track after his injury.
Dylan Koppendrayer went 0-2 in the tournament and finished the season 16-21. He has made some big improvements this season and looks to hunker down the end of the line up next year with fellow sophomore Colin Turchin who placed second and will make his second trip to the state this season. He went 4-1 at the tournament and is 32-9 on the season. His only losses are to ranked opponents and he looks to turn things around next week at the state tournament.
I would like to say great job to the wrestlers who competed this season and I look forward to helping you next year and to the seniors. It has been a great ride and for two of you the ride continues next week.

 

Photos by Mel Lockhart

Top: Jake Braaten

Middle: Amos Schmidt

Bottom: Colin Turchin