Hastings Has Another Strong Performance At The Annual Christmas Tournament - by Gary LaChance

The Minnesota Christmas tournament is considered one of the toughest individual tournaments in the Midwest and this year was no different. Fielding arguably the toughest group of wrestlers in years there were 140 ranked wrestlers at the tournament this weekend. In 10 of the weight classes there were at least two #1 ranked wrestlers with no less than seven ranked wrestlers in every class.

The Hastings wrestling team finished in 8th place out of 35 teams at the Minnesota Christmas tournament while 5 wrestlers placed in their brackets. At 119 lbs Eric Bauer rolled through the weekend on his way to a 4-1 record and a 2nd place finish after falling to Dylan Wright of Simley in the finals. Colten LaChance wrestled at 140 lbs this weekend and finished strong in 5th place; his weekend ended with a 5-2 record and quality wins over two ranked wrestlers. Senior captain Tyler Rohr compiled a 4-2 record before injuring defaulting to take home 6th place at 160 lbs. PJ Mike finished in 7th place in the HWT division with a 4-2 record. At 135 lbs Jeff Engstrom finished in 8th place with a 3-3 record, all three losses coming against highly ranked opponents.

At 145 lbs Zach Rohr ended his weekend 3-2. Zach who is coming off a broken hand will be back healthy and ready for the Clash in January. Corey Latuff who wrestled up at 125 lbs finished 1-2 in a very tough bracket. Isaac Eichmann 215lbs went 1-2.

Competing in their first individual varsity tournaments were Dan Gove (103 lbs) 1-2, Alex Jones (112 lbs) 0-2, Nick Loesch (130 lbs) 1-2, Jacob Rauchuy (152 lbs) 1-2, Jake Swenson (171 lbs) 3-2, and Josh Lohmann (189 lbs) 3-2. All wrestled well in their respective matches and gained an enormous amount of experience that they will be able to build on for the rest of this season.

The next schedule event for the team will be the national duels on January 8th and 9th back in Rochester, MN. This will be an exciting time for the wrestling team that will be trying to improve on their 8th place finish last year. The next three weeks will give the team an opportunity to rest and heal some minor injuries over the holidays while preparing for the opportunities ahead.