Tigers show opponents theyíre contenders

By Barbara Brown
Rush City had a successfull invitational turnout Saturday when seven other school converged on Tiger territory to wrestle in one of the first invitational competitions of the season.
The format gives the Tigers the opportunity to get an early look at their competition throughout the season.
At the end of the day, the Tigers took fourth place overall, sacrificing significant points through forfeits in the higher weight classes of 189, 215 and 275.
The team took 133.5 points. They were topped by Hinckley-Finlayson with 145, Braham with 190 and Mille Lacs with 248.
Mille Lacs impressed the crowd by finishing the tournament with six champions.
Although the Tiger team took fourth overall, it had four second place finishers which equaled a good show for the still-growing team.
Richard Marohn (112), Zach Sowman (135), Tim Morris (145) and Mike Wuorinen (160) all finished in second place.
Junior Scott Englund took third place at 152 in his first year wrestling for the Tigers.
Travis Leibel, an 8th grader, took fourth in the 119 weight class, an impressive beginning for the young varsity wrestler.
One interesting match was the 85th of the day which pitted junior Tim Morris against Hinckley-Finlaysonís Dylan Van Gorden.
Morris faced an overtime battle with Van Gorden after struggling to tie the score at 2-2 with an escape in the last seconds of the match.
As Morris waited for the coin toss and for timers to reset the clocks for the one-minute overtime, Van Gorden left the mat and the referee penalized him with a technical penalty of one point, giving the match to Morris in a 3-2 finish.
While coach Kevin Jensen knew he would have a tough time this season filling the higher weight classes, he still was optimistic about the situation.
ìIt would be awsome to see what we could do as a team if we had every weight class filled,î he said. ìIn wrestling you need numbers, but you need numbers at the right weights.î
The team next faces Hinckley-Finlayson on Thursday at home with varsity scheduled to begin around 7:15.
The team travels to the Big Lake Tournament this Friday.

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