PEM Wrestlers Advance to Section Semis, Lose to State Bound Simley

The Bulldogs’ dual meet season ended last week at the Mayo Civic Center, with a loss to nationally ranked and state bound Simley. But there were plenty of moments of excitement along the way.

Beginning last Thursday in the Section 1AA quarterfinals, the #3 seeded Bulldogs hosted the #6 seeded Cannon Falls Bombers. Despite being the lower seed, the Bombers put the pressure on the Bulldogs early. Using a pin at 106, a forfeit at 113, and another pin at 120, the Bombers jumped out to an early 18-0 lead with returning state entrant Cooper Peterson still to come at 126. Despite losing the match, sophomore Kael Lamb battled hard against Peterson and minimized the damage to a 3 point decision. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs found themselves down 21-0 after the first 4 weight classes. Beginning at 132, Cael Marx got the Bulldogs in the W column with a :32 second pin, making the score CF 21 PEM 6. The win was Marx’s 100th win of his career. Marx becomes the 29th wrestler to achieve the 100 win milestone in PEM wrestling history, and only the 3rd ever to reach it as a sophomore, in addition to being the 3rd to reach it this season.

Cooper Hofschulte kept the momentum rolling with a major decision at 138 to get the Bulldogs in double digits, but still trailing 21-10. Following at 145, Joe Stucky turned in a dominating performance winning by a 10-2 major decision in a rematch of a match he won 3-0 only a week and a half earlier, closing the lead to 7. But at 152, the Bombers dropped another bomb and picked up a pin to stretch their lead to double digits yet again (CF 27 - PEM 14). Carter Marx added a forfeit victory at 160 to again get PEM within 7 (27-20), but again the Bombers retaliated with a pin at 170 making it CF 34 PEM 20, and the Bulldogs were running out of weight classes. At 182, freshman Martin Prieto, kept the Bulldogs’ hopes of preventing the upset alive. Using an offensive attack that included 4 takedowns, Prieto led 8-4 in the 2nd period, when he hit a cement mixer front headlock that finished the match with a pin.

The win brought the Bulldogs to within 7 (33-26) with 3 weight classes remaining. Defending state finalist Dustin Dittrich needed just over a minute to add another pin at 195, bringing the Bulldogs within 1 point (33-32). With almost no room for error, junior Riley Wingert battled to a 0-0 stalemate to end the first period of the match at 220. Then in the 2nd period, Wingert hit a granby roll from the down position, which ended in a pin, giving PEM their first lead of the night 38-33. With the meet still not put away at 285, the Bulldogs called on heavyweight Logan Wingert to finish the job as he has so many other times this season. Wingert needed only :26 seconds to complete the dual meet, recording his team leading 32nd pin of the season. The pin also puts Wingert in a tie with former PEM HWT state champion Jesse Kahn for most pins in a season school record (32).

Advancing to the Section semifinals, the Bulldogs faced the 11 time state champion Simley Spartans. The Spartans came into the dual ranked #3 in MN and #35 in the United States. In the end, the Simley firepower proved to be more than the Bulldogs could handle, but the meet was not without some PEM highlights. At 106, 1st year wrestler Jason Feils battled all the way to the triple overtime tie-breaker in the opening match of the dual before dropping the decision with a 1-1 score. Sophomore Garrett Olson recorded his 15th pin of the season at 120. At 145 and 152, Joe Stucky needed only 1:40 to record a pin, and Carter Marx ground out a 2-0 decision victory. In the most exciting match of the meet, Dustin Dittrich avenged his regular season loss to Simley’s Bennett Tabor with a 2-1 decision victory.

Later in the afternoon, Simley defeated the top ranked and 3 time defending state champion K-M Komets to advance to the state tournament. The semifinal loss ended the Bulldog’s dual meet season. The Bulldogs finished the season 19-7, with 1 win and 6 losses versus teams that qualified for the state tournament. PEM’s individual postseason continues on Friday and Saturday at the Mayo Civic Center as the Bulldogs chase down individual trips to state by placing in the top 2 of the Section 1AA Individual Tournament.

Pictures vs. Cannon Falls can be seen Here!

Pictures vs. Simley can be seen Here!

PEM 44 Cannon Falls 33

106: Preston Carlisle (CF) over Jason Feils (PEM) (Fall 3:38)

113: Colten Black (CF) over (PEM) (For.)

120: Erwin Strelow (CF) over Garrett Olson (PEM) (Fall 3:58)

126: Cooper Peterson (CF) over Kael Lamb (PEM) (Dec 5-0)

132: Cael Marx (PEM) over Levi Anderson (CF) (Fall 0:38)

138: Cooper Hofschulte (PEM) over Sam Ludden (CF) (MD 9-0)

145: Joe Stucky (PEM) over Peter Fitterer (CF) (MD 10-2)

152: Dillen Anderson (CF) over Lafe Aarsvold (PEM) (Fall 1:09)

160: Carter Marx (PEM) over (CF) (For.)

170: Chris Modrak (CF) over Connor Jones (PEM) (Fall 1:46)

182: Martin Prieto (PEM) over Henry Johnson (CF) (Fall 3:24)

195: Dustin Dittrich (PEM) over Beau Zimmerman (CF) (Fall 1:03)

220: Riley Wingert (PEM) over Ryan Linde (CF) (Fall 2:40)

285: Logan Wingert (PEM) over Carson Lind (CF) (Fall 0:26)

Simley 54 PEM 18

106: Peyton Spychalla (Simley) over Jason Feils (PEM) (UTB 1-1)

113: Cory Primeau (Simley) over (PEM) (For.)

120: Garrett Olson (PEM) over James Diaz Lopez (Simley) (Fall 1:35)

126: Chase DeBlaere (Simley) over Kael Lamb (PEM) (Fall 3:36)

132: Ryan Sokol (Simley) over Cael Marx (PEM) (Fall 3:35)

138: Cael Berg (Simley) over Cooper Hofschulte (PEM) (TF 18-3 4:15)

145: Joe Stucky (PEM) over Brent Holzem (Simley) (Fall 1:40)

152: Carter Marx (PEM) over Travis Dohmen (Simley) (Dec 2-0)

160: Landan Duval (Simley) over Connor Jones (PEM) (Fall 3:17)

170: Nolan Wanzek (Simley) over Alex Rahman (PEM) (Fall 1:12)

182: Quayin Short (Simley) over Martin Prieto (PEM) (Fall 1:47)

195: Freddy Rivera (Simley) over (PEM) (For.)

220: Dustin Dittrich (PEM) over Bennett Tabor (Simley) (Dec 2-1)

285: Daniel Gregory Kerkvliet (Simley) over Logan Wingert (PEM) (TF 16-1 1:27)

(Simley unsportsmanlike -1.0)