AREA WRESTLING: “THOR Wrestling Club” wraps up successful second season
MINNEOTA – The “THOR Wrestling Club” is a regional Freestyle/Greco Club which draws wrestlers from southwestern Minnesota and trains in Minneota. The wrestling club is a chartered USA Wrestling Club. The club is managed & coached by J.D. Pesch, Wade Gillund, Travis Christenson, and Steve Banks. Coach Pesch, who moved to Minneota 3 years ago has over 24 years of Freestyle/Greco Club experience, starting two other clubs over the years, “Ghostriders”/Scott West Wrestling and “Valley Elite” of LeSueur.
2016 was the club’s first year and we had 52 wrestlers, aged 5-18 from towns around the area. In our second year, 2017 we had over 70 wrestlers, from Minneota, Marshall, Canby, United(Dawson-Boyd, LacQuiParle), and MAHACA ( Morris Area Hancock Area Chokio Alberta ).
“We have kids driving over an hour twice a week for practice. It’s amazing the commitment these kids and young men have. It’s hard when it’s 75 degrees out for the first time in six months and you are heading to a wrestling room or gym,” coach J.D. Pesch said. “We tell them to make the commitment and they will see the results. On top of that the tournaments are mostly in the Cities - three or four hours away with weighins on Saturday mornings at 7:30 a.m. These wrestlers typically get up at 4 a.m. and ride in carpools to a Freestyle/Greco Tournament somewhere across the state on a nice spring day for a full day in the gym and then a three hour ride home. Many of these kids are also in a High School spring sport. We are so proud of these kids and young men.”
Pesch added that the kids get to work together and build lasting friendships and strengthen bonds over the course of the season.
“It’s a good experience training with kids from Kindergarten to Seniors in High School,” Pesch said. “The young kids look up to the older kids, and the older kids get energized from the younger kids. They have a lot of fun with the age difference as well as building relationships with area wrestlers whom they compete against during the high school season of Folkstyle Wrestling. The club also has guest clinicians from SDSU & SMSU, including Rylee Molitor, Brock Buysse and Antonio Mikel, as well as former U of M Gopher and USA World Team Member wrestler, Dan Zilverberg.”
The Thor Wrestling Club has been extremely successful and has exceeded all expectations for coaches and parents the past two years. We practice 2 nights a week starting in Mid-March and wrestle at 7-10 tournaments across the state.
2017 Tournaments the team traveled to Eastview in Apple Valley, Apple Valley High School, Jackson, St Francis, Forest Lake, Simley, Moorehead, Stewartville and Owatonna.
The State Tournament was held in Monticello, MN. May 13-14th.
There were 90 teams from across Minnesota entered in the tournament
The Thor Wrestling Club tied for “The Team Greco State Champion Title” with Forest Lake each scoring 2,620 team points.
Individual placing in Greco Wrestling:
We had 27 “Thor” wrestlers qualify for State.
State Champions: McCoy Marthaler, Lincoln Christenson, Lane Fink, Jackson Esping.
2nd Place: Hunter Gibson.
3rd Place: Caden Rose, Carter Gibson, Grant Louwagie, Trevon Johnson.
4th Place: Sam Regnier, Dylan Louwagie, Davin Rose.
5th Place: Landon Marthaler, Adam DeVlaeminck, Brock Fier, Tyce Anderson, Peyton Gillund, Lincoln Fink.
6th Place: Ethan Lebrija.
DNP: Aidan Mattison, Brett Regnier, Zack Fier, Dalton Rose, Blake Reiss, Justin Johnson, Cole VanOverbeke, Teddy Pesch.
In the Freestyle portion, Forest Lake was the Team State Champions with 2,750 points and The Thor Wrestling Club was a close second with 2,640 points.
Individual placing in Freestyle Wrestling:
We had 26 “Thor” wrestlers qualify for State.
State Champions: McCoy Marthaler, Lincoln Christenson, Lincoln Fink, Caden Rose.
2nd Place: Landon Marthaler, Lane Fink, Jackson Esping, Trevon Johnson.
3rd Place: Adam DeVlaeminck, Brock Fier, Dylan Louwagie, Carter Gibson.
4th Place: Peyton Gillund, Hunter Gibson, Grant Louwagie.
6th Place: Brett Regnier, Ethan Lebrija, Brant Buysse.
DNP: Tyce Anderson, Davin Rose, Zack Fier, Dalton Rose, Blake Reiss, Justin Johnson, Cole VanOverbeke, Teddy Pesch.
One member of Thor Wrestling Club has achieved the high honor of a “Triple Crown” Winner. Lincoln Christenson of Marshall was State Champion in all 3 styles of wrestling. Greco, Freestyle and Folkstyle (Tournament was held in March 2017).
“I believe this is the first member of any club I have coached to achieve this high honor,” coach J.D. Pesch said.
The State medalists qualified for National Regions in Rochester last weekend.
The Northern Plains National Regional was also held this past weekend and two Thor wrestlers participated.
Greco: Caden Rose placed 2nd and Davin Rose placed 6th
Freestyle: Caden Rose placed 5th and Davin Rose did not place.
Each year the club has goals for its members to strive to be chosen for Team Minnesota and participate in the National Dual Team Tournament. We typically have one to three wrestlers achieve this high honor. This year five Thor Wrestling Club members have been chosen for Team Minnesota.
They are: Caden Rose-Morris, MN, Lane Fink-Canby, MN, Lincoln Fink- Canby, MN, Jackson Esping-Minneota, MN and Trevon Johnson-Boyd, MN.
They will be traveling to National Team events in the month of June.
Content courtesy
of J.D. Pesch/
Thor Wrestling Club