PONIES HEADED BACK TO THE X AFTER TAKEDOWN OF MOUNDS VIEW IN SECTON 4AAA
Dateline: Coach Onken’s Kitchen Table 2/15/2025 9:23AM
It has been a year since the Mustangs pegged off the Ponies and stopping Stillwater’s 7 year streak of State Team entries. The Section 4AAA Team Tournament took place last night and the Ponies would look to make it 8 of 9 by the end of the evening. In quarter final action the Ponies had a bye with the #1 seed. Mounds View ran through #7 seeded Tartan, Centennial won convincingly over Roseville Area and White Bear Lake knocked off hire seeded Irondale. This set up a semifinal of Mounds View and Centennial and Stillwater against White Bear Lake.
Mounds View quickly dispatched of an up and coming team in Centennial. The Ponies did the same with White Bear Lake with a score of 62-4. Senior Andrew Karas and 8th grader Jay Hammarsten got in the action with a win for Karas.
In the final of the evening the Ponies met the Mustangs for what I believe is the 8th year in a row with the opportunity of a State berth in the balance. The Ponies gave Mounds View a run in 2024 but the Mustangs earned their first State trip in many years with a 32-16 win. During the regular season the Ponies got the best of Mounds View by a score of 35-27 but the Mustangs were missing a couple of guys from the lineup. So this is how it all played out.
At 107 Chase Lawrence got the Ponies on the board with a third period fall to give the Ponies a 6-0 lead. Joe Dauffenbach wrestled Owen LaRose taking a 1 point lead into the third period but LaRose was able to score a reversal and some back points to win a decision making the score 6-3. Cade Elzen hit right back with a major decision to give the Ponies a 10-3 lead. Mounds View came right back with a tech fall by Swenson over Jelinek to make the score 10-8. Noah Nicholson scored an 8-0 major decision to give the Ponies a 14-8 lead heading into the 133 lb. match. Axel Rogotzke won a tight decision in the 3rd period with a key reversal over Hatton to give the Ponies a 17-8 lead. At 145 Isaac Leonard went on a scoring flourish against Helmer to turn a possible decision into a tech fall giving the Ponies a 22-8 lead. Grayson Eggum kept the scoring going with a tech fall of his own to give the Ponies a 27-8 lead. However, Mounds View was not done. They scored a fall at 160 shaving the Ponies lead to 27-14. In what would be one of 2 key matches Lindson Turner went out strong against Colton Grenier scoring first and often and winning a crucial major decision in the last seconds to give the Ponies their 7th victory of the dual and bringing the score to 31-14. All the Ponies had to do to secure a tie and the win was to not give up a pin in the last three matches. Cohen Lumby got the assignment against Muhlstein and he did not disappoint. Cohen won the match by losing a tech fall making the score 31-19; even with two pins at 215 and 285 the Mustangs would only secure a tie and lose on criteria. The Ponies had accomplished their target, making it back to the Xcel in 2025. The Mustangs hung their heads and sent out a backup at 215 for a 38 second fall by Cael Spates and a 37-19 lead. In the final match Andrew Olson earned some section individual seeding cred with a 7-0 decision over Maxey to make the final score 40-19. It was a great celebration on the mat with the entire team, JV included. The Ponies improve Coach LeValley’s first year record to 26-6 and will likely earn the 3rd seed with another shot at Shakopee in the semifinals next Thursday.
In other Section action, Prior Lake knocked off top seeded Apple Valley form Section 2. Hastings returns for Section 3. STMA returns for Section 5 and Shakopee for Section 6. The 5th seeded Elk River Elks come out of Section 7 and Bemidji wins on criteria over top seeded Willmar in Section 8. Section 1 will be determined later today with a match between Albert Lea and Northfield.
Up next, Section Individual at Stillwater next Saturday. The Ponies have sent 13 in the past. We will see what happens next week!