By Derek Simon

[email protected]

The Hastings Varsity Wrestling team competed in two triangular meets last week. They first travelled to Forest Lake on Thursday to wrestle against the Rangers and the Cambridge Isanti Bluejackets. On Saturday, the Raiders hosted the Farmington Tigers and the Eagan Wildcats. Hastings entered the week with a 5-2 record.

On Thursday night, the Raiders squared off against two more Minnesota wrestling powers, with mixed results. The Raiders struggled against Forest Lake, winning just two of 12 matches. Blake Beissel won by fall for Hastings at 106 and Cameron Olsen won 13-6 at 220 pounds. Forest Lake won by a score of 56-9. Against Cambridge Isanti, the Raiders split the 14 matches evenly with the Blue Jackets. When Olsen won at 285, by a score of 4-0, the Raiders squeaked out an impressive 34-31 win.

Hastings would again have a tight battle on Saturday morning against Farmington. Hastings won six of 14 matches. Farmington held on to the narrow 38-36 win. One of the highlights of the morning was the match at 113. Mark Svoboda had previously won twice this year due to forfeits. This day, the seventh grader would get his first win on the mat, a pin at 5:52.

“This kid’s pretty tough and I didn’t know how the match was gonna go until I started getting into the later period. When I got that first takedown, I knew it was go time. He started on top and he got cautioned, so I knew that he was a little tired. I knew right there that I could pressure through and I knew what I could do. Then I got that whip over and pinned him,” Svoboda stated. When asked about his first varsity win, Mark said, “Well, it’s kind of nice for first varsity win as a seventh grader you don’t see that much, right? When I got that whip over, I knew I had a super tight grip and I put them away.”

Hastings would then take on the Eagan Wildcats in their second match Saturday. The Raiders would dominate the Wildcats winning 12 of 14 matches. Hastings would win five matches by fall, four by forfeit, and two others by decision in the easy 66-12 victory. The Raiders improve to 7-4 on the season.

Individual results for the week: 106 Blake Beissel went 3-1 on the week with all three wins by fall.

113 Mark Svoboda was 2-2 this week. Mark had his first two non-forfeit wins on Saturday. A pin against Farmington and a 10-8 decision against Eagan.

120 Creed Peterson was 1-2 on the week. Peyton Erickson lost his match.

126 Jack Bainbridge went 3-1 this week with one win by fall.

132 Skyler Little Soldier and Caleb Folstrom spilt matches this week. Both Wrestlers were 1-1.

138 Blake Reamer was 0-2 on the week. Evan Svoboda was 1-1 with his win by fall.

145 Josh Route went 2-2 on the week, both wins by fall.

152 Aiden Erickson was 3-1 this week with two wins by fall.

160 Zander Hallis went 1-1 on the week with a win by fall. Ian Pepple finished 0-2 this week.

170 Rico Cooper was 3-1 this week with two wins by fall.

182 Sam O’Connor was 2-2 on the week.

195 Tyler Miller finished 0-4 on the week.

220 Cameron Olsen was 1-0. Dylan Bartz was 0-2. Austin Leflay was 1-0 with a win by fall.

285 Cameron Olsen was 2-1 on the week with a win by fall. Dylan Bartz was 0-1.

Hastings travels to Coon Rapids on Thursday February 4th for another triangular. The Raiders will be home on Saturday hosting a triangular

Seventh grader Mark Svoboda earns his first ever varsity win on Saturday against Farmington. Svoboda fought a very tough opponent that had control for a good portion of the match until Svoboda wore him down, earning the pinfall. Photo by Bruce Karnick