The Bluejay wrestling team is a long way off from some serious goals, but the early returns sure haven’t put a crimp in any of them.
The Bluejays opened the season with a 50-15 Valley triumph over SPASH at home on Thursday, then hit the highway for a dominating performance in Saturday’s 16-team Black Hawk Tournament.
Merrill racked up 310 points to capture their 10th consecutive invite in Fort Wayne on the Wis./Ill. border, 62.5 points in front of runner-up Stoughton. A cool dozen grapplers placed third or better, with 10 in the top two.
“We love going to the tournament,” MHS coach Scott Arneson said. “It’s wall-to-wall wrestling mats and wall-to-wall people. People’s feet are right on the edge of the mats. It’s like wrestling in the old East Gym (commons of PRMS now) again.
“We seem to wrestle great there. I think our kids expect to do well. We’ve been telling the kids we want them to be aggressive and get after it, and they’re doing it.”
The Jays pulled down six titles in 14 weight classes with Scott T. Arneson (120), Garrett Schmelling (126), Mason Reinhardt (152), Ray Paul (160), Noah Lassa (195) and Tyler Schmidt (220), and ranked second in four others with Nathan Beyer (106), Matthew Reinhardt (138), Eric Ball (145) and Grant Collins (285).
Marcus Reinhardt (132) and Ben Hintze (170) placed third, while Hunter Welch (113) was 6th. Jacob Tessmer (182) did not place.
Paul, Lassa and Schmidt all picked up from last year’s run that ended at the state tourney.
Schmidt flattened all his foes, while Arneson and Lassa each had two pins and a tech fall. Beyer, Mason Reinhardt and Collins pulled two pins apiece, and Paul and Hintze both had a pin and tech fall. This was the first high school tourney ever for freshmen Arneson, Mason Reinhardt and Welch, although Arneson and Rein­hardt have extensive state and national experience in lower age levels.
Pointed rebuff
Merrill jumped out to 22-0, 40-3 and 50-6 leads in Thursday’s dual meet, never winning by less than six points. SPASH did pull out three decisions by two points or less.
“I think we’re going to win a lot of dual meets,” Arneson said. “We have a well-balanced team.
“If we want kids to go get an extra team point, they’re cutting a guy loose and going after it. It’s not that we didn’t try that in years past, but this year we have the confidence to actually do it.”
Collecting pins in the match that started with a forfeit to Lassa at 195 were: Schmidt (1:26), Collins (:54), Schmelling (4:21), Matthew Reinhardt (2:55), Mason Reinhardt (4:34). Beyer (10-0) and Paul (14-6) gave major decisions, and Arneson (10-4) and Marcus Reinhardt (11-4) gave wins.
Welch (5-4), Ball (6-4) and Hintze (8-6) were edged, and Tessmer was pinned (1:00).
“We had three freshmen in the line-up going toe-to-toe with good kids,” Arneson said. “Hunter and Mason were freshmen against senior and Mason pins him and Hunter was close. Scott beat a kid that had beat him before.”