Prescott hosted its only home event of the season this past Thursday against Middle Border Conference foes Amery and Osceola. In the first dual of the event, Prescott squared off with the two-time defending Division 2 champions, the Amery Warriors.

The Warriors emerged with a 54-18 win. Prescott got wins from senior Benny Olson, a decision at 106 pounds, junior Nolan Thomley, a decision at 152 pounds, and falls by junior Lono Thomason and senior Shane Butler, wrestling at 160 and 170 pounds respectively.

After Amery defeated Osceola 47-18 in the second dual of the evening, Prescott defeated Osceola 28-27, earning the final team point on the sixth tiebreaker criteria, the least number of forfeits given up. The dual featured four double forfeits at 106 pounds, 120, 220, and the 285 heavyweight match.

The first match of the dual Olson bumped up a weight class to secure a fall in just over a minute in the 113-pound contest. Prescott sophomores Wesley Rightman and Culley Anderson battled hard for the Cardinals but were unable to come out on top in their 126 and 132-pound bouts.

Sophomore Cole Platson received a forfeit at 138, sophomore Steven Atherton lost a tough battle at 145 and freshman Luke Maier received a forfeit at 152 pounds. Thomley secured an 8-3 win at 160 pounds, Thomason moved up to 170 and fought valiantly while Butler secured the last win of the night for Prescott with a forfeit at 182 pounds. Junior Quinn Glasby lost a close 5-2 decision in the final bout of the evening at 195 pounds.

“Lots of guys stepped up in both duals,” Prescott head coach Ross Wargula said. “Culley and Wesley had their first varsity matches against Amery. That’s a tall task to ask kids to go out there and battle with kids from a state championship team. They both rose to that challenge and wrestled tough for six minutes. Quinn’s match against Osceola was certainly a big piece to us being able to win that dual. He faced arguably their best kid and had some chances late to almost tie that match and send it to overtime. The effort all night was high. We’re going to get back to work and keep improving our conditioning.”

Eau Claire North Invitational

The Cardinals traveled to the Eau Claire North Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 10. The tournament featured many prominent teams from both Wisconsin and Minnesota. Simley, Minn., won the tournament with Kaukauna and Arrowhead taking second and third place respectively.

Prescott finished 20th in the 32-team field. The Cardinals were paced by fifth-place finishes by Olson at 106 pounds, Thomley at 152, Butler placed seventh at 170 and Glasby in the 182-pound contest.

Olson fell in his quarterfinal match to Division 1 sixth-ranked Bailey Casey of Menomonie by a score of 5-2. In his fifthplace match, Olson defeated Division 1 ninthranked Nick Jenkins of Kaukauna 17-10.

Thomley won his first two bouts of the day to get to the quarterfinals. He was defeated by Minnesota Class AA second-ranked Cash Raymond of Simley. Thomley rebounded to win his next two matches to claim a fifthplace finish.

Butler won his first two bouts of the day, then had a pair of losses to honorable mention ranked kids. Butler finished his day by pinning Camran Baun of the hosts Eau Claire North in the first period. Glasby finished off the scoring for the Cardinals by placing 12th.

“Our kids got to see some high-quality wrestling throughout the whole day,” Wargula said. “Simley is the top-ranked Class AA team in Minnesota and probably a topfive team overall in the state of Minnesota. Kaukauna is the two-time defending Division 1 Team State Champs, Holmen was the D1 runner ups last year, Arrowhead was a D1 Team qualifier, Saint Croix Falls was a D3 Team qualifier last year and they are now in our Sectional.”

That was just the beginning of the stiff competition. Wargula spoke about some of the other teams at the Eau Claire North invitational that have sustained success as a wrestling program.

“Baldwin-Woodville is a conference foe and highly ranked, Neillsville-Greenwood-Loyal is in our Sectional and ranked third in D2,” Wargula said. “Stratford is a tough D3 team and Lakeville North is a Class AAA team from Minnesota that always has tough kids. This tournament makes us better in both the short and long term.”

Prescott competed in one of the toughest tournaments in Minnesota or Wisconsin over the weekend. For Wargula, the focus was on facing that tough competition and getting better as a program. He reflected on the day of wrestling.

“Overall, we had a very good day of wrestling,” Wargula said. “With only four guys scoring, we were able to place 20th, which is kind of where we thought we would be. We had some elite competition that will prepare us for the challenges we will face down the road. We will see some of these guys in the next month or so at other tournaments so we’ll have a good litmus test of what we need to be doing to peak in February.”

While there were a lot of positives to take away from the Eau Claire North Invitational, Coach Wargula focused on a few key takeaways that signal the program is moving in the right direction this season.

“For Benny to bounce back the way he did was good. He is getting better each week and maturing as a leader and example for our guys as well,” Wargula said. “Nolan got three pins today. Outside of his match against Cash Raymond, he was dominant. Shane was under the weather all day. If he was 100%, I think his matches against the kids from Medford and NGL go differently. He just didn’t have the energy he normally does. He’ll get some vitamin C and get better. He will get another shot at those guys in the next month or six weeks. I look forward to it and so does Shane. Quinn battles with the best of them. He is undersized at 182 but gives it his all. We will work on some tweaks to his offense to create some scoring opportunities for him at that weight. This team has some great heart to it on the mat. It has improved each day this season. It is a great group to coach.”

Prescott travels to Cameron for five duals on Friday, Dec. 16. Those matches are slated to begin at 5 p.m.

Submitted by Prescott High School Wrestling