Westfield Razorbacks wrestle to tournament win

The Westfield Razorbacks (7-5) took the title at the annual Dave Erickson Hall of Fame Tournament at Hayfield on Saturday. 
The Razorbacks finished first at the 12-team festivals. Byron placed second and Rochester Mayo earned third. They were followed by Cannon Falls, Waseca, Dover-Eyota, Austin, Saint Charles, Rochester John Marshall, Triton and Saint Thomas Academy. 
The Razorbacks also had three individuals take home individual titles at the tournament.
Seth Peterson earned the crown at the 152-pound weight class. It took Peterson just 55 seconds to pin Grand Meadow’s Josh Graves in the championship match. Peterson had earlier pinned Triton’s Kaleb Storm in 43 seconds and earned a 5-2 decision over Rochester John Marshall’s Justin Higgins. 
Colton Krell, ranked No. 1 at 160 in Class A, was the champion in his respective weight class. He defeated Cannon Falls’ Hayden Strain with a 3-1 decision in the finals. Krell opened the day with a two easy wins. He pinned Waseca’s Buck Kuhns in 32 seconds and won by major decision over Rochester Mayo’s Will Kruger 17-1. 
Morgan Moreno, ranked No. 4 at 195 in Class A, won the third individual title for the Razorbacks at 195. He pinned Triton’s Hunter Jennings at the 4:23 mark of the third period in the championship match. Moreno also pinned Grand Meadow’s Tangen in 14 seconds and Austin’s Phillip Zynda in 1:13.
Mitchell Oswald, ranked No. 4 at 285 in Class A, settled for a second place finish at heavyweight. Rochester Mayo’s Noah Carter defeated Oswald in the championship match by a 5-2 decision.
Oswald pinned Dover-Eyota’s Elijah Marks at the 3:08 mark of the second period in the semifinals. 
Ethan Arett, ranked No. 4 at 113 in Class A, earned a third place finish for the Razorbacks at 106. Arett decisioned Jett Thoreson (Saint Charles) 11-2, lost to Erwin Strelow (Cannon Falls), pinned Colton Zwiefel (Saint Thomas Academy) in 26 seconds and then pinned Mason Gehloff (Waseca) at 2:15 in the third-place match. 
Isaac Fernandez placed fourth at 170 and Tristen Rieken (182) and Dylan Nirk (220) each placed fifth for Westfield.
WESTFIELD BATTLE BACK
The Razorbacks won the final four matches in two different matches this past week to earn a pair of comeback victories.
Westfield trailed 36-24 after 10 bouts at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva on Thursday, Jan. 18 but Rieken, Moreno and Nirk all pinned their opponents to give the Razorbacks a 42-36 advantage. Oswald picked up a forfeit victory at heavyweight to make the final score 48-36.
Westfield co-head coaches Chad Gimbel and Shane Masching said they were still confident the Razorbacks would persevere despite being down 36-24 with just four matches remaining.
“We don’t like being in that situation, but we know what we have on top,” Masching said. “Those guys know their jobs and they know what they have to do to come through.
“We performed well,” he continued. “I’m always happy to see the kids get wins. We asked some [junior varsity] kids to step up and fill some big shoes and they’re doing a great job.”
Rieken wrestled his first match of the season with the score tied 36-36. He suffered a knee injury on Sep. 29 while playing for the Awesome Blossoms’ football team.
Rieken said it felt great to return to action with his teammates. 
“I really missed it,” he said. “It’s something that I have really been looking forward to. It’s good to be back.
“I had a little bit of nerves going through me,” Rieken continued. “But when you see the score, you know you have to go out there and do something big for your team.”
Gimbel said Rieken’s return give the Razorbacks an instant morale boost.
Nirk pinned his opponent in just 34 seconds to put the Razorbacks back ahead for good.
Nirk said his teammates at 182 and 190 did a great job of relieving some of the stress by picking up pin fall wins in their respective matches. 
“Coach really has us practice snap downs and wants us to stay aggressive the whole match” he said. “The upper half of our team is very strong and did that, but it could have been a lot better.”
Westfield’s Keegan Bronson began the match with a pin in the final seconds at 106.
“That was big one,” Gimbel said. “[Bronson] a young kid who kind of flip-flopped between varsity and JV. He came up with a huge win for us. That got us started and it ended up being the difference in the match.”
Arett pinned Andrew Reich in the first period at 113, but the Panthers won the next five bouts for a 30-12 edge. Peterson got the Razorbacks back on track with a first period pin at 152 and Krell pinned Brendon Strand in 59 seconds at 160 to make the score 24-30. NRHEG’s Tyler Jacobson pinned Isaac Fernandez at 170 for the Panthers’ final victory of the meet.
Westfield also fell behind early in their second match of the triangular meet at NRHEG. The Razorbacks trailed Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial 18-6 before winning the next four matches to retake the led and eventually went on to win 48-29.
Arett gave Westfield an early 6-0 margin with a pin over Tucker Wills in just 1:43 at 106, but LCWM won the next three bouts to lead 18-6. Ash Tyler pinned Bronson in the first period at 113 and Trayton Hewitt took Cody Nirk in just 24 seconds at 120. Caleb Clobes won by forfeit at 126. 
Cole Christianson got the Razorbacks back into the match with a forfeit win at 132 and Joe Pirkl pinned Camden Ludeman in the second period at 138, Payton Simon pinned Brenden Jones in just 40 seconds at 145 and Seth Peterson took care of Dominic Rosin in 27 seconds to give Westfield a 30-18 margin after eight bouts.

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Jeremiah Colon won a major decision over Krell 20-5 at 170 and Avery Northquest won by forfeit at 182 to close the gap to 30-29. That was it, however, for the Knights, as the final three bouts went to Westfield all by falls. Moreno needed just 11 seconds at 195, Dylan Nirk took 59 seconds at 220 and Mitchell Oswald used 16 seconds for his heavyweight win.