Howells-Dodge Wrestling Review
Howells-Dodge Tournament Summary
The time of the year for the early mornings, bus rides, battling the bitter cold in the mornings, and making weight are finally here--it is officially wrestling season.
The EPPJ Wolfpack wrestling team went to battle for the first time this season. The results from the meet were very encouraging, but there is still a ton of room for growth. The Howells-Dodge invite was a pool play tournament, so each competitor got at least three matches on the day.
Jordan Lindgren started off the day competing in the 120 lb weight class. This is Jordan’s first year of wrestling, but he showed tremendous guts and heart in all three of the matches he competed in. We have to continue working on Jordan’s mentality, to become more aggressive, and to keep drilling the fundamentals to him throughout the season. Overall, we were very pleased with how he went out and competed.
In the 126 lb weight class, Logan Henn started off his senior campaign in strong fashion, going 4-1 on the day and finishing 3rd. In Logan’s first match of the day, we matched up against an opponent from Archbishop Bergan in Fremont. This was a key match on the day as Bergan is in our district in February. Logan showed tremendous fight to the very end, but came up short when the clock hit zero. Logan then showed a tremendous mindset and mentality to “flush” his previous match to reel off 4 straight wins. In these 4 wins, Logan demonstrated complete control, and wrestled smart in situations that are difficult for any wrestler. Moving forward, we have to continue working with Logan on his bottom moves to more fine tune his craft.
The younger Henn brother, Luke, competed in the 132 lb weight class. The first match of the day, Luke got caught in a scramble position and ended up dropping his first bout on the day. Like his older brother, Luke bounced back from his opening round loss and reeled off 3 straight wins to claim 5th place in his bracket. Luke demonstrated the qualities of someone with true grit, as his next three opponents he got the pin. Luke has to continue to stay aggressive and set the tone at the beginning of his matches. We also need to work on situational wrestling in practice so that he can learn from this tournament going forward.
The last Wolfpack competitor for the day was Cam Nielsen. Cam competed in the 195 lb weight class. Cam is also a first year wrestler, but Cam also showed a lot of potential in the matches that he competed in. Cam ended up finishing the day in 7th place in a very tough weight class. There is a ton of potential and upside with Cam, but we need to continue to drill the fundamentals to him and have him keep showing the work ethic and drive that he has show in practice.
Next week, the EPPJ wrestling team will embark in a triangular against the Cyclones of Clearwater-Orchard and the Cardinals of St. Mary’s. The tri is scheduled to start at 6:00 PM in Orchard. The Wolfpack wrestling team will also be traveling to Osceola to compete, with that meet starting at 8:30 AM.
Until next week,
Coach Rossman