PONIES WIN 3 MORE TO MOVE TO 8-0 BEFORE CHRISTMAS BREAK
Dateline: Coach Onken’s Kitchen Table 12/14/2024 1:29 PM
The Ponies put week 2 of competition to bed, adding another 3 dual victories to start the young season at 8-0. On Thursday Stillwater met up with Irondale / Spring Lake Park and Roseville for an SEC tri. The Knights and the Raiders both had some wholes in their lineup and it showed in the final scores. The Ponies beat Irondale 60-11 and finished the evening with a 61-11 win over Roseville. Clark Bryant saw his first varsity action of his career and won his match with a first period fall. The Ponies begin their SEC campaign with a 4-0 start.
On Friday the team headed south to Albert Lea to take on the 5th ranked Tigers. Last year the Ponies squeaked out a 37-25 win that came down to the heavyweight match with Andrew Olson winning by fall. The Tigers returned with much the same team and had thoughts of knocking off the Ponies, but they were having none of that. The Ponies got out of the gates quickly with wins by Chase Lawrence, Ryan Birkenmayer and Joe Dauffenbach to take a 12-0 lead. The Tigers fired back with a win by 2nd ranked Logan Davis, but Mikey Jelinek scored a fall of his own to make the score 18-6. The Ponies were well on their way to a victory with wins by Eggum, Leonard, Turner, Lumby and a final fall by Andrew Olson for more convincing 45-20 win. The Ponies have racked up wins over 3 ranked opponents so far this year and there is more to come.
Up next, the MN Christmas Tournament in Rochester next weekend and The Clash Team Tournament in La Crosse after break.
The JV continues to have success as well racking up 51 falls to the Varsities 39. The Ponies took 11 of 15 matches from Irondale on Thursday evening posting 10 falls. They followed that success by taking 7 of 9 matches from Roseville. On Friday evening the wins kept coming as the Ponies won 13 of 19 JV matches against the Tigers. Some noteworthy wins include Ron Bruflodt who is on a 2-0 streak, Erik Skjervold who won his first 2 high school level matches and a pat on the back for Jay Hammersten who took one for the team by wrestling Brandon Lee, multi state entrant in a JV match. We are also starting to see some growth in our newcomers including Caleb Line who might have found a move with the side roll and Caleb Vang who nearly earned his first victory on Friday night. It has really been nice to see the wrestlers support and cheer for each other. Both varsity and JV are truly showing good team chemistry.
The JV has one more performance before break heading to the Anoka JV Duals this coming Saturday. This is a 16 team seeded tournament. The Ponies finished in the top 8 the past two seasons and hope to make a top 5 finish this season.
Until next time….