Now complete, the present Orioles wrestling season saw many team and individual gains. Orioles Wrestling Head Coach Jake Fitzsimmons reflected on the present season as it comes to a close.
“Overall as a team we made a lot of progress this season,” he said. “We had a young team with almost 20 wrestlers returning next season. I am excited to see how many wrestlers we have next year and look to try and fill our girls team as we had five girls wrestlers this year. We return two state qualifiers and six sectional qualifiers from this year’s team, so we have a bright future. As we look ahead to the future I also want to thank our seniors for their dedication, hard work, and perseverance. Caiden Pahl, Candin Yeager, Brody Westrom, Alex Williams, and Dylan Seichter. They all ended their senior seasons with winning records and combined for over 120 wins for us this season.”
Looking back, it was season to remember.
The season started with the varsity tournament Dec. 7 at Black River Falls, with Aaron Sturm leading the team with a third place finish.
From there the Orioles went to Barron Dec. 14, before holding a home tournament in the Pre-Holiday Scramble Dec. 20.
As for Barron, the Orioles girls took home several individual medals, with Koraline Pennala and Lillian Fitzl taking first, while Sierra Marten took third. The Pre-Holiday Scramble saw Candin Yeager and Willy Graham each take first in tier weight class, with Alex Willia, Brody Westrom, Caiden Pahl, Dylan Seichter all taking second for the boys. As for the girls, Marten and Ziva Blair took second.
Come the new year it was on to the Bi-State Classic at LaCrosse, with Graham placing sixth in a tough bracket while Fitzl, Marten, and Nevaeh Walters all won matches for the girls. Aaron Sturm took four victories while Seichter won four of five matches at LaCrosse.
With more matches and victories intervening, February saw the start of the post season, with the Conference tournament at Spencer Feb. 7 followed in quick succession by regionals. With regionals at Merrill and Edgar six Oriole wrestlers made it to sectionals—Graham, Sturm, and Dredyn Arneson for the boys; Marten, Walters, and Fitzl for the girls.
Of these six, Sturm and Graham advanced from sectionals to State, playing at the Kohl Center, with Sturm advancing to Consolation Round 1 and Graham making it to the fifth place match.
The season now over, its time to prepare for next wrestling season at Stanley-Boyd.