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PREP WRESTLING: Opening statement

Marshall starts season with triangular sweep against New Ulm, Quad County

Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Dylan Louwagie tries to pin his New Ulm opponent during their match on Thursday. Marshall defeated New Ulm 51-24 and Quad County 67-6.

MARSHALL — With a packed gymnasium cheering them on, the Marshall wrestling team opened its season on Thursday with a triangular against New Ulm and Quad County. MHS quickly took command of the pace in both duals, defeating New Ulm 51-24 and QC 67-6.

Marshall coach Justin Bouwman said it felt great to be back to a more normal atmosphere, especially with the crowd.

“It feels so good to be back to a more normal environment,” Bouwman said. “Being able to have a crowd besides just parents, it’s an exciting time for us, for the kids and we’ve waited a long time for it.”

Bouwman added although their lineup consists of a lot of underclassmen, they have been in the program for a long time and now get to take advantage.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids, but they’ve been wrestling for a long time,” Bouwman said. “Now they’re getting their opportunity, we finally graduated some guys who have been steady up top for us for a long time with Grant [Louwagie], Spencer [Wambeke] and Mitchell [Bouwman] and all of those guys, and now these guys are getting their opportunity and it’s fun to watch.”

Marshall 51,

New Ulm 24

Marshall faced New Ulm to open the triangular and got out to a quick start, with Landon Marthaler and Brayden Chandler earning pins while Dawson DeCamp won by a 5-0 decision to give MHS a 15-0 lead before New Ulm got back-to-back pins to draw the deficit to within three at 15-12.

That would be the closest the Eagles got, though, as Marshall won its next seven bouts, with Dylan Louwagie (138 pounds), Tate Condezo (152 pounds), James Gadnalske (160 pounds), Tucker Fiene (182 pounds) and Gavin Schaefer (195 pounds) winning by a pin while Aiden Mattison (145 pounds) and Lukas Stelter (170 pounds) won by 4-2 and 9-4 decisions, respectively to push Marshall’s advantage to 51-12. New Ulm then won the final two bouts by pin to bring it to the 51-24 final.

Marshall 67,

QC 6

After QC fell to New Ulm 58-21, Marshall took on the Cobras to close the evening. MHS once again got out to a strong start, as Marthaler and Brayden Chandler won by forfeit and DeCamp won by a pin to give Marshall an 18-0 lead. Marshall never looked back, with Drew Chandler (7-0) and Condezo (5-1) won by decision while Collin Klenken and Mattison won by a pin and Louwagie and Gadnalske won by forfeit to push their lead to 48-0 before Stelter won by tech fall (10-2), Fiene won by a pin, Schaefer won by a 7-6 decision and Keiton Walerius won by forfeit to make it 67-0. QC then got a pin by Austin Sweep to bring it to the 67-6 final.

Bouwman said their key in both duals was their high level of energy and overall conditioning to start the year.

“Just for us, I think we had a little more energy in the tank in some spots,” Bouwman said. “We work on our conditioning pretty hard and go pretty hard in practice and it’s good to see that it’s paying off already.”

Up next

Marshall (2-0) will compete next on Saturday at St. James Area at 9 a.m. Going into their next meet, Bouwman said they need to slow down more when they are on the mat and taking things one move at a time.

“We need to slow down on a few things, we’re going way too fast trying to pull too many moves at the same time,” Bouwman said. “That just comes from age, these young guys are go, go, go and they forget that it takes a little bit of brake to think about it and get through it.”

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