ANML wrestlers win undefeated conference title

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Annandale-Maple Lake wrestlers ended their regular season with five more wins, boosting their final record to 21-3 and claiming an undefeated Wright County Conference victory.
ANML’s only losses this season were to the No. 1 in Class A ranked Minneota, No. 3 in Class 3A ranked Willmar, and No. 6 in Class 3A Anoka.
They lost no matches in their own Class 2A and are currently ranked fourth. Their stupendous season has them expecting a top seed going into the Section 6-2A tournament which will start on Thursday, Feb. 12.
Foley will likely win the No. 2 seed, head coach Jason Bartels said.
The Lightning kicked off the week on Tuesday, Feb. 3, with a 48-23 win over Tri-City United. The victory also marked coach Bartels’ 100th dual meet win of his head coach career. Bartels gave credit to the entire coaching staff, wrestlers and parents. He also said that the accomplishment gives testament to the stability of the Annandale-Maple Lake wrestling program, which he feels is important.
The Lightning got off to a nice start by winning the first eight matches. Quinn Youngs, Nate Carlson and Spencer Ogden produced pins for the team and Tanner Vassar provided a technical fall.
Hunter Malachek “probably had the biggest win of the dual, though, by beating one of their best wrestlers in a close 3-0 battle,” Bartels said.
TC-U made up some ground in the upper weights, but ANML’s early lead helped them secure the victory.
The Lightning faced Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg in their second duel of Tuesday night, and defeated the Fighting Saints 48-32.
K-M-S is a highly-ranked Class A team, so ANML knew going in that they could take nothing for granted. The Lightning again started out well, winning their first seven matches, but wins became harder to come by after that.
ANML had to do some maneuvering in their line-up to ensure the victory, Bartels said. The Lightning ended up forfeiting to their best two wrestlers, which K-M-S wasn’t too happy with, he admitted.
“We were simply doing what seemed to be the obvious choices,” he said.
Tuesday was also Senior Night and the Lightning honored five seniors: Cullen Gallagher, Walker Rask, Hunter Hicks, Spencer Ogden and Josh Gindele.
“Each and every one of them has been a vital part of our program in the past and present,” Bartels said. “We are very proud of what they have become and what they have accomplished.”
On Thursday, Feb. 5, ANML traveled to Dassel-Cokato for a make-up dual that would marked the final WCC competition and secured the Lightning’s conference title with their 50-17 win.
“D-C has always been our friendly rival, which has been signified with our ‘Battle of the Bolt’ trophy, which has been passed back-and-forth now for over a decade,” Bartels said. “Both teams always seem to wrestle a bit more intensely against each other with the underdog always seeming to be a surprise. Therefore, we by no means were looking past them. They are a very gritty team and are well-coached.”
Keeping with the theme of the week, the Lightning got out to a hot start by winning their first seven matches and nine out of their first 10 matches.
“There was really no one wrestler to point to in this dual as they all came up fairly big for us,” Bartels said.
ANML ended the week with another double dual at Zimmerman on Friday, Feb. 6. They started off the night with a 64-9 win over Little Falls.
“To be straight, the Little Falls score was greatly aided by the quantity of weights they forfeited to us,” Bartels said. “They had a handful of better wrestlers sit out against us due to injury and various other reasons, which allowed us to win by the margin that we did. With their full line-up we would not have beaten them by 55 points, it would have actually been a pretty competitive dual. But with the sport being such a grind and this being the end of the regular season, line-ups are sometimes decimated.”
Quinn Youngs wrestled a close match at 113 pounds that he got out to an early lead on, but was just barely able to fight off a comeback by one of the Flyers best wrestlers in a tight one-point match.
Vassar was in a tight battle as well at 132 pounds. Despite losing early on, he was able to make a come-back, turning it on to capture a fall in dramatic fashion.
Tomberlin one-upped the dramatics by bumping up a weight class, to 160, to wrestle a state-ranked opponent. He came back in the final seconds to push his match into overtime where he scored in an “aggressive manner” to secure an exciting win, Bartels said.
At 182 pounds, Ben Gindele showed some of the best energy and effort the team has witnessed all year, scoring late in the final seconds of his match in order to save a team point despite an individual loss, Bartels said.
“We love effort like that and we’re hoping it’s contagious,” he said.
The Lightning dominated Zimmerman 66-6 in their second dual of Friday night. A section opponent, Zimmerman has a returning state champion on their team and a handful of other great wrestlers, but lack overall depth and numbers, Bartels said.
ANML’s Hunter Manka, Hunter Malachek, Mitchell Bergstrom and Chandler Rask all got pins for the team to add to the Lightning’s high team score, which was also fueled by forfeits.
Vassar once again bumped up a weight class for the team to wrestle a “great wrestler.”
He was down early, but was able to get things going late in the match to make another comeback win.
“He keeps us on our toes and our hearts racing, but he just keeps finding ways to win,” Bartels said.
On Thursday, the high seed ANML will host the Section 6-2A quarter-finals. The semi-finals and finals will be held the following day, Friday, Feb. 13, at Zimmerman.
“It has been a great season, and we hope to keep this train rolling in any way that we can, regardless of the obstacles we face on and off the mat,” Bartels said.
 

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