For the first time in almost nine years, the STMA Knight wrestlers were outscored by a Mississippi-8 Conference opponent as they were defeated by St. Francis by a score of 41-28 Friday, Jan. 13 at St. Francis.
Technically, the contest was not a Conference dual meet since STMA is in the western half of the conference and St. Francis is in the eastern half, therefore it was officially a non-conference match-up and didn’t count for the “conference record.”
There is a “Conference title” match scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 2, hosted by the eastern conference champion versus the western champion, a match that will most likely pit St. Francis against the Knights, once again at St. Francis.
The loss to St. Francis was the first dual meet setback against a Mississippi-8 conference foe for STMA head Coach Dan Lefebvre in his nine-year tenure as the Knights head coach.
The Knights were ahead in the dual after six matches by a score of 15-14 before a strong run in the middle weights put the home team, Saints, ahead to stay.
Coach Dan Lefebvre commented, “We are looking forward to finishing the remainder of the season strong by working hard to improve, so that we can accomplish our end-of-the-season goals, as a team.”
The Knight wrestlers host a dual against Buffalo Thursday, Jan. 19, and then split the team on Saturday Jan. 21, competing in an individual tourney at Robbinsdale Cooper and also send a team to an individual tourney at Eastridge in Woodbury, both teams competing in the varsity division of their respective tournament.
St. Francis-41 STMA-28
106-Isaiah Mlsna (STMA) won by forfeit; 113-Tanner Kunshier (St. Francis) decision over Nate Nygaard (STMA) 7-4; 120-Patrick McKee (STMA) pinned Zach Bonte (St. Francis) 4:10; 126-Zach Dehmer (STMA) decision over Colten Pertucci (St. Francis) 3-1; 132-Mitchell Wilson (St. Francis) pinned Kyle Elkie (STMA) 1:07; 138-Mason Hall (St. Francis) tech fall over Carl Leuer (STMA) 22-7; 145-Teddy Pierce (St. Francis) pinned Gage Mertes (STMA) :21; 152-Tony Struntz (St. Francis) tech fall over Wyatt Bice (STMA) 23-7; 160-Luke Lipinski (St. Francis) pinned Wyatt Lidberg (STMA) 2:59; 170-Jake Allar (STMA) won by forfeit; 182-Timmy Wettenkamp (St. Francis) pinned Gabe Anderson (STMA) 3:13; 195-Cole Kirpach (St. Francis) major decision over Max Jensen (STMA) 13-1; 220-Evan Foster (STMA) major decision over Kyle Lindenfelser (St. Francis) 13-1; 285-Allen Winters (STMA) decision over Nick Pierce (St. Francis) 2-1