Wrestlers get back to work after long weather delay
RANDOLPH –Like everyone else in Northeast Nebraska, the Randolph wrestling team battled the elements but were at least able to find its way onto the mat this last weekend.
After two weeks of postponement, the girls and boys traveled to the Oakland Invite Saturday and came away with some impressive performances, according to head coach Mark Lech.
“The girls had an excellent day and we had three girls wrestle and all three medaled,” Lech said. “Karma Henry wrestled in the 105-pound bracket and took second place. Gracie Wortman wrestled 115 and Emilee Olson (125) were champions. The girls only lost one match all day and really competed well.”
The boys took eight wrestlers to battle in seven weight classes and six of those came back to Randolph with medals.
Gage Jensen (190, second place), Gavin Wortman (165, third), Justin Backer (175, third) and Aiden Gubbels (285, fourth) were the bigger winners on the day while taking fifth place were Joe Miller (190) and Cole Jensen (120) “Although the boys didn’t have a champion they competed well against good competition,” Lech said. “Many of the boys wrestled through several rounds of consolations to reach the medal round. The team overall ended up eighth out of 17 teams.”
Backer, for one, was pleased the team was able to get back at it, after many meets, and even some practices, were canceled or rescheduled due to weather.
“We kind of had a had a rough patch just getting back into the swing of things,” he said. “We couldn’t wrestle there for about a week, so it felt good to be back on the mat and get back to wrestling and having a blast.
“In our case, we took just about two weeks and that helped us recuperate and get our health back. Those of us that had injuries helped that a little bit. It helped everybody get back in the game and back to their full potential.”
Backer was also impressed by the results after such a long time off.
“I was really proud of our guys and as a team in general, we did really good,” he said. “We had a bunch of guys placing in the top five and I finished third and I don’t think I have ever done that at a meet before. There were a lot of guys in the same boat that never placed at that meet and we did this time.
“Our score was a bit lower, but again, we’re we were up against a lot tougher teams, but we managed to pull through in the individual aspect of things.”
This week, with multiple makeup dates, Randolph will be busy.
They took on Hartington Cedar Catholic on Monday and battled at the West Holt Invitational Tuesday.
On Thursday, the Cardinals host Creighton and Osmond for Parent’s Night.
Friday the girls will head to Plainview with the boys heading there the following day.
“We are glad to makeup the contests instead of losing them to the weather,” Lech said.