By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Friday and Saturday the Merrill wrestling team hosted their annual Northern Exposure tournament at the Merrill High School. Out of the 18 teams at the tournament the Jays finished in eighth place, going 4-3 as a team.
“Northern Exposure was an extremely competitive tournament,” comments Merrill head coach Brian Suchocki. “We wrestled well in many situations. As a team we went 4-3 coming in eighth place which put us ahead of a state ranked team. The tournament included six state ranked teams and a few honorable mention teams in their respective divisions. The top ranked team in Minnesota, Shackopee, took second place behind Mukwonago, the fifth ranked team in Wisconsin.”
The Bluejays would start with a dominating win over Marquette by a score of 66-9. The Jays would then go on to lose the next two dual meets to De Pere by a score of 24-44 and Mukwonago by a score of 12-62. Merrill then won their next three dual meets, beating Manawa 50-27 before moving on to Beaver Dam who they topped 45-33 and finally beating Waukesha South 58-16. The Jays then lost to Sauk Prairie in their final meet of the tournament by a score of 31-43.
“We had many competitive duals and it was good for us to see where we are at,” adds coach Suchocki. “We will use this tournament to help us make the push into the second half of the season. Bradley Leiskau had an excellent tournament. Bradley won all 7 of his matches by pin. It was determined that Bradley had all those pins faster than any other wrestler at the tournament. That was very impressive considering the caliber of wrestlers at the tournament.”
Other notable Merrill wrestlers include Heavyweight Zach Iribarren with six wins, Tristin Brewington with four wins, Tanner Depies with four wins, Cody Depies with four wins, Casey Hoffman with four wins and Carter Bayer with four wins.
Merrill will be back in action on Saturday as they host the Bluejay Challenge tournament, starting at 8 a.m.