Crimson Wrestlers, Managers, and Families-
Week Eleven Recap:
Going into the season we knew we had put together a challenging schedule. At the time it was assumed one of the most challenging stretches would be a late season Thursday Tri that included
arguably the top team in the state (Simley) as well as one of the higher ranked teams in AAA (Wayzata) followed by an individual tournament at home on a Friday night. As predicted, crimson wrestlers (not named Ben Schultz) didn’t exactly pad their stats. The Simley and Wayzata duals where rough with only three individual wins between the two duals (Shultz X 2, and Ayden Gunville). However, the team rebounded with a victory against Edina in the third dual. That dual included wins from Alex Fox – 113, Logan Belchak (with a big pin for his first career win) – 120, Ethan Hong – 126, Thomas Schlangen – 138, Noah Fox – 152, Nick
Wentland – 170, Shultz – 195, and Chase Thein at Heavyweight. It was a total team victory as even those who lost battled and many saved team points with their efforts.
On Friday night as a program we took on the task of hosting nine other teams for a Friday night tournament (individual for Varsity and Team for JV). Both portions of the tournament proved
challenging but by all accounts, the JV guys battled and despite forfeiting the top five weights, were one win away from pulling out a dual victory in their third match of the night. In the Varsity gym we had one Champion (Shultz) and one runner-up (Rufus Bartee). Four of our eleven guys ran into the top seed in the first round and three of them (Jayden Waste, Wentland, and Gunville) won each of their matches after the first round to finish fifth. Ultimately it was a great couple of days of growth. Tough competition was exactly what we needed at this point in the season to identify what we need to focus on down the stretch. Because of these two events we will be in much better position to excel during the final weeks.
I’m incredibly grateful for all the volunteers who made Friday’s tournament a success. We had high school and youth parents, Alumni, and current injured wrestlers all doing their part to make
Friday a first-class event. Thank you to everyone who contributed that night. Many hands make light work – and this was a great example of teamwork throughout the entire Crimson Wrestling
program. Very much appreciated!!!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed a weekend off and is excited to return to the mat in the coming week.
Can’t believe a portion of the team has their competitive seasons coming to an end this week. It’s gone by so fast! We would like all of our wrestlers to continue to attend practice through the
end of every wrestler’s season. Each wrestler plays a role in the success of the team and each individual’s success. Our competing wrestlers are representing every wrestler in our program
and they need the support and continued effort of their brothers on the team to compete at the highest level.

Here are the details you’ll need to know for the week ahead:

Week 12 Practice/Meet Schedule:
Monday, 2.6 – Practice: Wrestling room at 3p.
Tuesday, 2.7 – Practice: Weight Room at 2:10p; Wrestling room at 3:10p.
Wednesday, 2.8 – Practice: Weight Room at 2:10p; Wrestling room at 3:10p. This will be a
Match Day with singlets encouraged. As part of that we will do wrestle offs for JV Conference
as needed (only guaranteed one wrestler per weight class – although we can typically get
most/all wrestlers in to the tournament).
Thursday, 2.9 – Practice: Wrestling room at 3:10p.
Friday, 2.10 – Away match at Osseo. This is our top rival and we compete for the Droggy Cup –
which we intend to bring back to Maple Grove for the first time in a few years. Should be an
exciting night. Details as follows:
4:30p – Bus leaves for Osseo. Wrestlers should be at the school by 4:30p.
5p - Weigh-ins.
6p – JV Starts
7p – Varsity Starts
There is not a bus home Friday. Wrestlers with parents in attendance can leave from Osseo
Senior High. We will make sure any wrestler without a parent attending has a ride back to the
high school as needed.
Saturday, 2.11 – JV Conference will be at Park Center while the Varsity will practice at 8a or 9a (TBD). J.V. will be an individual 16-man bracket format with placement out to 8 th place. The
bus is scheduled to leave at 7a with wrestling set to begin at 9:30a. There will be an additional 1-pound (106 = 109). A tournament of this size is a great way for our JV guys to end their competitive season and I’m excited to see our JV guys battle against their counterparts within our conference!
NOTE: For Team Sections on 2.18 we are allowed to bring 21 wrestlers. The plan will be to finalize our alternates based on what we’ve seen throughout the season regarding practice consistency, what we see in practice this week, results of Wednesday’s Match-day matches, and JV Conference results. We aren’t likely to take more than 2 wrestlers at most weights as we do expect to compete well at Team Sections and having strong alternates at as many weights as possible is an underrated piece of winning duals. It is an honor to be on the Team Section Roster and I’m hopeful all wrestlers who are chosen as alternates will be excited about the opportunity to represent their team in the postseason!

The last few weeks will go fast. JV Conference, Team Sections, Individual Sections, and the State Tournament will all be over before we know it. Looking forward to growing from what we
saw this past week and getting our hand raised against some top competition in the final weeks.

Intense matches are upon us – and there is no more exciting time of the season. Looking forward to it!
As always let me know if anybody has any questions.
Coach Troy
Mgwrestling99@gmail.com
763-913-0601