Cardinals fly away with win over GC grapplers

By Kelsie Hoitomt

GLENWOOD CITY — School resumed this past week and the Glenwood City wrestling team seemed to be a bit sluggish after the break as they lost to a young Spring Valley team 37-34.

The night started out at 120 lbs with Riley Knops wrestling freshman Logan Newton. The match was won by a decision of 11-0 which put the Toppers on the score board first.

Coach Strong then made a change in the roster as Jake Carlson forfeited at 126 lbs and moved to 132 lbs, where he wrestled Ryan Berg and lost in 4-7 decision.

Billy Norenberg then wrestled against freshman Jed Schlegel and was pinned late in the third period, which put the score at 15-4.

The Toppers then went on a scoring run and regained the lead after Adam Holmquist beat Zach Newton in a 12-3 decision.

Austin Moe wrestled fellow senior Jaron Turner at 152 lbs and won by a tech fall on a 16-0 decision.

The match of the night came at 160 lbs with Jeff Kopacz against junior Trent Miller. Miller had the upper hand on Kopacz through out the first period. In the second period Kopacz was then put on his back and looked to be pinned until he rolled his way out and on to Miller for a reversal and the pin as the Topper fans went crazy.

Blayze Wood followed up with a win over Kevin Fesenmaier after the match was stopped and restarted several times due to Fesenmaier’s bloody nose.

Brennan Kessler went back and forth with freshman Ryan Asher until he finally pinned him early in the second period, which pushed the Toppers further ahead 28-15.

The Cardinals however quickly bounced back after Donovan Fornal was pinned by freshman Ethan Hofacker and Alex Little was brought to his back and pinned by Mike Roesler.

The Toppers scored their final points of the dual from heavy weight Kyle Peterson, who pinned sophomore Jake Howe in just under a minute.

With the Hilltoppers still without a 106 lb wrestler, they had to forfeit that match which put the score at 34-33 going into the final match of the night.

It was then up to freshman Damian Hoitomt who had to face off against junior Derek Huebel. Hoitomt managed to fight throughout the entire match and save himself from being pinned, but the decision went to Huebel and the Cardinals took the win.

The Toppers wrestled Tuesday night at home against Stanley-Boyd and will travel to Hammond to wrestle the Panthers on Thursday night and then they head to Pine City, MN on Saturday to make up the Northwestern duals that were cancelled due to weather last month.