Wrestling: Adrian shines in debut at Xcel
Farmington’s Eric Adrian showed no signs of being intimidated in his first appearance at the Class 3A State Wrestling Tournament. The senior won his first two matches by fall and went on to place fifth in the 160-pound bracket last weekend at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.By: Matt Steichen, The Farmington Independent
- Eric Adrian
- Carl Elmer
Farmington’s Eric Adrian showed no signs of being intimidated in his first appearance at the Class 3A State Wrestling Tournament.
The senior won his first two matches by fall and went on to place fifth in the 160-pound bracket last weekend at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Adrian’s upper lip was split open during his first-round match against Richard Carlson of Mounds View, but the senior managed to fight through the pain and score a third-period pin. In the next round he needed just over a minute to take down Owatonna’s Jeremy Duruji, who entered with a record of 39-7.
“He took an elbow to the face and it split his lip pretty bad,” Farmington coach Jon Lund said. “I really thought he was going to have to default, but the trainer managed to stop the bleeding. In between his matches a doctor was taking a while stitching him up and the Novacaine wore off before he finished. Eric sure showed some toughness there.”
Adrian managed to stay off his back in the semifinals, but he was sent to the consolation bracket after an 8-0 decision to 46-1 Minnetonka senior Ben Cox.
Adrian also lost his next match, 15-7, to eventual third-place finisher Jordan Campa of St. Michael-Albertville, but he bounced back to close out his prep career on a winning note with a 12-7 victory over Troy Morisette of Tartan in the fifth-place match. Adrian finished with a record of 34-8.
“In those two bouts, Eric sort of ended up on both sides of the same type of match. Against Campa we were close early, but Campa opened up and blew the match open. Campa was a state champ in 2009, and showed it. In the fifth-place match, Eric opened up offensively and put the match out of reach,” Lund said. “As a coach, it was one of the most satisfying victories that I’ve seen out of one of my boys. Eric gave up two early takedowns, and could have thrown in the proverbial towel…. At that point, his opponent had to take injury time giving us the opportunity to remind him that he was in great shape. Coach Olson reminded him to keep good position, and Eric turned it up and absolutely dominated the rest of the match. It was great.”
Farmington’s other two state entrants didn’t fare as well. Senior Nick Albano finished third at 215 pounds last season, but couldn’t get past the first round this year. His 22-6 senior season ended with a fall against eventual third-place finisher Cody Raze of Saint Francis.
Albano’s fourth of the 16-man bracket contained the Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 7-ranked wrestlers in the state.
Junior Carl Elmer suffered a similar fate at 140 pounds where he lost 5-2 to eventual third-place finisher Chad Mack of Coon Rapids. Elmer came back with a 7-0 win in his consolation bracket match, but was sent packing after a 7-5 overtime loss to eventual sixth-place wrestler Andre Dorschner of Centennial.
“We certainly would have liked Nick and Carl to have joined Eric on the podium, but we didn’t quite get there. It goes without saying that it is the best of the best at the state tournament,” Lund said. “You don’t have to have wrestled in the state tournament to have a successful career, but Eric and Nick capped off their respective careers by earning trips to the state tournament, and in my opinion had phenomenal experiences. And we certainly look forward to Carl returning for his senior season.”
Tags: sports, farmington, tigers, wrestling, prep
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