Wrestlers take on foes at Eau Claire tourney
The Abby-Colby wrestling team traveled west to take part in the Eau Claire North 2022 Husky Invite this past Saturday. The team placed 26th out of 33 teams at the event, which saw many large schools like Arrowhead, Kaukauna and Simley, a Minnesota school that would likely be in Division 1 if they were in Wisconsin, participate.
Four athletes from the co-op team competed in bracket play. Freshman Tristen Smazal took the highest place for the team with his seventh place finish in the the 126-pound weight-class. He went 2-2 in his matches, taking down Jason Mc-Millian in his first match before falling to Colton Hush of Baldwin-Woodville and Lucas Ryan of Arrowhead in his next two competitions. He won his seventh place match to finish the day, taking a 9-4 decision over Derek Buck of Simley to claim the spot for the Abby-Colby team.
Sophomore Jacob Hoppe went 1-3 in his matches in the 160-pound weightclass, which earned him eighth place. He took his first match by fall, taking down Gavyn McFarlane of the Neillsville/ Greenwood/Loyal co-op at 2:44. Ramon Gulmatico of Arrowhead then took him to a technical fall in the next match and he lost a 10-3 decision to Taden Holldorf of Baldwin-Woodville to place him in the seventh place match. Abraham Henderson of Cochrane-Fountain City took the match by fall at the 3:31 mark.
Luis Nava Rojas also went 1-3, though in the 285-pound bracket, losing his first match to Moson Baribeau of Baldwin-Woodville by an 8-2 decision. He bounced back in the consolation bracket’s first round, taking down Garet Rivord of Superior in a closely fought match in which he took the 10-9 decision. That would be his sole win, as he fell in his following two matches to Kasey Johnson of Saint Croix Falls and Andrew Schaefer of Menomonie, giving Nava Rojas 12th place in the weight-class.
Brayden Meyer lost by fall in both his matches at the invite. Wrestling in the 152-pound class, he fell to Johnathan Krager of Chippewa Falls in the preliminary round and then similarly lost to Prescott’s Nolan Thomley by fall in his next match.
With their first two tournaments behind them, the Abby-Colby team will be hosting a quad this Thursday, Dec. 15. They will be inviting Auburndale, Stratford, and Antigo to the event, which is slated to start at 4:30 p.m. in Abbotsford’s south gym.
