Wrestling: Depth shines at Big Lake

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The Farmington wrestling team started and finished strong during a fifth-place team finish at Saturday’s eight-team Big Lake Invitational.

The Orange and Black scored 66 points in the opening round, then, after posting just five points in the second round, came back to win nine of 10 of their consolation matches en route to a total of 138 points.

The Tigers filled 12 of 14 weight classes and 10 of those wrestlers placed in the top five of their brackets.

“The young men on this team keep surprising us with how well they are handling themselves,” head coach Chad Olson said. “We have a lot of depth on this team for the first time in a long time with 45 wrestlers in the practice room and it shows when we compete, because with depth comes competition in the room.”

Freshman Jacob Gabbard was the Tigers’ top finisher, earning second in the 103-pound weight class. He won his first two career varsity matches with pins and was winning in the finals before falling via pin.

Five of Gabbard’s teammates achieved third-place finishes, including senior Carl Elmer, who fought through a 145-pound bracket that featured four returning state qualifiers. Elmer lost to the state’s eighth-ranked 145-pounder 7-5 in the semifinals before coming back to beat fourth-ranked Jake Schmitz of Monticello, 6-2, in the third-place match.

Farmington’s other third-place showings came from Josh Iverson (135), Joe Hoeve (152), Tyler Beckett (171) and Dakota Louis-Dupay (215). Iverson, Hoeve and Beckett each posted 3-1 records and Louis-Dupay went 2-1 with two pins in his first varsity tournament.

John Walz, Brayden Chapman, Jake Rudeen and Chris McCue each went 2-2 to earn fifth-place finishes.

Tags: sports, farmington, tigers, prep, wrestling