By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Saturday morning the Merrill wrestling team hosted the Bluejay Challenge at Merrill High School. Nineteen teams attended the tournament and Merrill would come away with a fourth place finish as a team and have five wrestlers place in the top four at their weight class.
As a team the Jays scored 324 points, 102 points behind winner Tomahawk. Wausau West finished second with 412 and Prairie du Chien came in third with 396.5.
Merrill’s lone first place finisher was Zach Iribarren at heavyweight who was undefeated on the day. Tanner Depies lost the championship match at 120 pounds, taking second place. Casey Hoffman (145 pounds) and Bradley Leiskau (182 pounds) both finished third in their weight class. Carter Bayer would make the podium, taking fourth place at 152 pounds.
“Overall we had a good day,” comments Merrill coach Brian Suchocki. “It was great, five wrestlers in the top four of the tournament. Zach Iribarren put together some good matches. It’s exciting to see his continual improvement. He needs to keep working at it. Tanner making the finals and competed well all day was good to see. Tanner puts in a lot of work to achieve his goals. His success is well earned. Casey and Bradley both put together solid matches to place third. Carter competed well in a tough bracket.”
The Merrill wrestlers are back in action on Thursday when they host Rapids in a dual conference meet starting at 7 p.m.