PONIES START THE SEASON UNDEFEATED

Dateline: Coach Onken’s Living Room 12/6/2025 9:13PM

The Ponies enter the 25-26 season ranked number 2 as a team in the Class 3A rankings, right behind STMA and ahead of a formidable Shakopee program. Where they end the season remains to be seen, but they kicked it off with some very solid wrestling the past couple of days.

On Thursday the 4th, the Ponies hosted a quad with Andover, section 4AAA opponent Centennial and section 4AAA and Suburban East Conference foe Irondale/Spring Lake Park. The Ponies performed well on the mat taking all three duals with scores of 55-18, 52-17 and 60-9 respectively. The Ponies start the season 3-0 as well as 1-0 in conference. The varsity will have new regular faces including Brodie Lawrence, Elijah Hunter, August Hartung and George Jones. There will be others who will also get there chances including Jordan Gunderson, an 8th grader, making his first appearance on varsity against Irondale.

The JV also performed well with newcomers Sawyer Johnson, Landen Smith, Luke Marier, Branden Stein, Cavan Lumby and Sawyer Deitner all seeing their first high school matches. Landen, Luke, Brandon, Cavan and Sawyer Johnson all notched their first victory.

On Saturday the Ponies headed to the Woodbury Duals where they were seeded #1 in an eight team bracket. In round one the Ponies took down the Wildcats of Eagan by a score of 65-9. In the semi finals the Ponies faced the Owatonna Huskies, but these were not the Huskies of old. The Ponies easily won the dual 64-6. In the finals it was Scott West with the Ponies taking home the 1st place trophy by a score of 53-12.

Jordan Gunderson notched his first varsity victory against Scott West and Noah Nicholson earned his 125th varsity win during the dual with Eagan. The Ponies improve to 6-0 on the season and will take the show on the road to Forest Lake this next Thursday for a pair of Suburban East Conference duals with the Rangers and East Ridge Raptors.