Wrestlers end regular season, start conference action

RANDOLPH –The end of the regular season for the Randolph wrestling program has provided a bright light for the Cardinals going into the stretch before the postseason.

The boys and girls spent time this past week battling in the Lewis and Clark Conference tournament and came away with some big results.

The group medaled through seven boys and four girls with the latter group finishing second in the tournament.

The boys medal winners were champions Gavin Wortman (165) and Gage Jensen (190); Cole Jensen (120) and Justin Backer (175) with second-place finishes; Aiden Gubbels (285) and his third-place run; while Bryson Eledge (138) and Joe Miller (215) each ended up fourth.

The Randolph ladies saw Gracie Wortman (115) take home the top spot as Karma Henry (110) and Maddy Aulner (170) both placed second and Emilee Olson (130) finished third.

Then the girls headed to West Point on Saturday to compete in their first taste of postseason action at the sub-district meet needing to finish top four in a bracket to advance to this weekend’s district meet.

Wortman put in a solid performance, qualifing to move on at 115 and will head to York looking to advance to Omaha and the state meet.

The boys wrapped the regular season on Saturday in Wakefield with seven Cardinals leaving it all on the mat.

Gubbels (285) won his weight class, Gage Jensen took second at 190 and Cole Jensen (120) and Miller (215) both captured respective third-place finishes.

“Both teams had a very successful regular season and hope to continue wrestling well in the postseason,” Randolph head coach Mark Lech said. “The stakes are raised as they try to qualify for the state tournament.”

The boys will next compete at districts in Pleasanton. Cole Jensen said he believes a few guys should make it to the state finals and that the conference performance was a good one.

“I feel like we’ve gotten better just because we have had more practice throughout the year and it’s done good for us,” he said. “It’s nice not having to drive 15 minutes to go to a different school to practice every day (as they did in previous years in a co-op with Laurel). We can stay at our school and it also helps that we are Class D now – the schools we wrestlers are more our size. We’re pretty dedicated and I know a lot of guys want to make it to state and are trying really hard.”