BHVPP Raiders open season
by Michael Arvidson
The whistle blew on the 2024-25 wrestling season the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for the BHVPP grapplers.
They loaded up and headed to Melrose for the Defender Invite featuring fifteen boys’ teams and nineteen girls’ teams.
It was eight full mats of craziness between three gyms with some scoring changes that have an emphasis on offense and scoring. It will take a while for the fans to start yelling “three” instead of “two”.
The girls have doubled the roster this season, so there are many new faces to get to know and figure out what they all have to offer and how the team will fit together.
Eight of the ten would find their way into the top eight with Elora Wagner leading the charge. She picked up two pins and a tech fall to claim the championship.
Autumn Dobratz was the other female finalist settling for silver after a come from behind pin in the semifinals.
They all wrestled well and gave the coaches some things to work on as the girls came away with a 4th place finish.
The boys took advantage of some early round matches to build up a lead after the first round.
From there, it slowly dwindled away as BHVPP only had eleven of the weights covered.
Evan Jares flexed his way to the top of the podium with four falls.
Merrick Hoffman took advantage of his first starting spot beating some tough kids navigating his way to the runner-up finish.
In the end, eleven of the thirteen wrestlers finish in the top eight to help the team finish in 4th place.
The team scores were as follows:
GIRLS
1. Mora (MORA) 163
2. Thief River Falls (TRF) 114
3. Sauk Centre-Melrose (SCM) 92.5
4. Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parkers Prairie (BHVPP) 77
5. Mille Lacs (ML) 72.5
6. Foley (FOL) 51
7. Wabasso (WAB) 51...
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