Boys wrestle in championship brackets, girls compete well
RANDOLPH – The Randolph wrestling team wrapped the 2023 portion of the current campaign last weekend at two different events.
The boys battled at Ord on Saturday and finished fourth as a team, while the Lady Cardinals tangoed in Winnebago Friday.
The boys wrestled on the championship side of the bracket for the first time this year, said Coach Mark Lech.
“We, individually, had a very good day, but due to lower numbers struggled winning more duals as a team,” Lech said. “Even though all but one team was a class or two above us size wise, the boys ended up with winning records.”
Seven boys took part at Ord with Cole Jensen at 120 pounds who went 2-3 on the day, Bryson Eledge (138, 4-1), Gavin Wortman (165, 4-1), Justin Backer (175, 3-2), Gage Jensen (190, 4-1), Joe Miller (215, 2-3) and Aiden Gubbels (285, 5-0).
The girls battled in a very large tournament with girls from across the state participating, Lech said.
Gracie Wortman (120) had the top performance with a fifth-place finish in her bracket while Karma Henry (105), Emilee Olson (130) and Maddy Aulner (170) also giving their pound of flesh in the tournament.
“The other girls competed well and it was good to see Maddy see her first live action of the year,” Lech said.
The girls will next compete on Thursday in Columbus at the High Plains Tournament while the boys head to the Winside Tournament Friday.
“There is some high expectations as we won this tournament last year,” Lech said of Winside. “Next week will be very busy with events on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday between both teams.”
Miller said he’s proud of the team’s accomplishments thus far.
“We saw a lot of people that are in higher classes and we still wrestle pretty well against them,” he said. “Everybody likes to shoot a lot and are very active and scramble pretty well.”
Staying mentally and physically tough through the last seconds of each period will help the boys’ team make the push to finish the season strong.
“We have no bad attitudes and we’re all positive. I’d like to see us make state,” Miller said.