Wrestling: Grapplers open with a 10th place finish at North Invite

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Saturday’s finish at the Lakeville North Invite showed Farmington wrestling coach Chad Olson how much his team has improved over the last year.

The Tigers finished 10th at the meet for the second straight time, but this year it came against a field of 16 teams rather than 14. Six of the team’s wrestlers placed in the top six, up from four a season ago, and the Tigers combined to score 72 1/2 points.

“It was a tougher tournament with more teams and we placed six wrestlers,” Olson said. “Overall, we wrestled really well. We are light years ahead of where we were at this point last year.”

Third-ranked (Class 2A) Scott West won the meet 268-193 over runner-up Hudson (Wis.). Henry Sibley, Lakeville North, Chaska/Chanhassen, Northfield, Lakeville South, Woodbury and Cottage Grove rounded out the top 10.

Kyle Benjamin and Joe Hoeve led the Tigers with a pair of third-place finishes. Benjamin won the third-place match at 113 pounds by a 6-0 decision and Hoeve pinned his final opponent at 160 pounds.

John Walz defeated the third-seeded wrestler at 126 pounds in the quarterfinals before dropping his final two matches and placing fourth. Taylor Venz used a 7-0 decision to win his fifth-place match and unseeded wrestlers Jake Rudeen (138 pounds) and Dakota Louis-Dupay (220 pounds) added sixth-place showings.

Tags: sports, farmington, tigers, prep, wrestling