Itasca C.C. narrowly defeats St. John’s wrestling team

St. John’s wrestling hosted the North Country Open on Jan. 22 in Sexton Arena. The tournament hosted wrestlers from all three NCAA divisions and junior college wrestlers. The Johnnies saw two of their wrestlers place second in the tournament.

Junior Ben Gilbertson wrestled at 184 pounds and started his day with a 25-6 technical fall over Johan Rodvik of Ridgewater College. He won a narrow 5-4 decision over Brett Graham from MSU-Moorhead. Gilbertson would lose in the championship match against St. Cloud State wrestler Bryce Fitzpatrick by a 4-1 decision.

“It was an awesome experience to compete in front of my family and friends,” Gilbertson said. “Unfortunately, I did not come out with the championship because of minor mistakes that I made in the match. In the end, that is okay because I can work on fixing the same mistakes in the practice room and leave with no mistakes come the end of the season.”

Competing in the 174-pound bracket was junior Hayden LeMonds, who started the tournament with a 7-5 decision before pinning MSU-Moorhead wrestler Wayne Mellon. LeMonds would narrowly fall to St. Cloud State’s Sebastian Zamorano in the championship round.

“The north country meet went well,” LeMonds said. “It was exciting to compete in front of a home crowd for the first time this season. I saw some [first-years] turn the corner and wrestle the best they had all season.”

The team then traveled to Grand Rapids, where they faced off in a dual against Itasca Community College. Gilbertson started the meet with a pin one minute and six seconds into the match.

“I was eager to step out of the mat and get a pin for my team,” Gilbertson said. “I told coach that I wanted to be the one to start off the duel, so that it can give the guys who were cutting weight a chance to recover properly and [show] that I was willing to set the tone for the rest of the duel.”

First-year Zachariah Hunter kept the momentum going with another pin to increase the Johnnies’ lead. First-years Teagyn Ludwig and Andrew Mire both won their matches by major decisions. Itasca would add one pin and three decisions in the meet, but SJU was forced to forfeit their matches at 133 and 149 pounds, giving Itasca the 27-20 win. Following the match, sophomore Logan Thorsten and Gilbertson won their exhibition matches by technical falls, while Hunter and sophomore Thomas Allen would pin their exhibition opponents.

“Most of the guys who wrestled, wrestled well,” head coach Kevin Schiltz said. “We had two open weights, which gave the [Itasca] Vikings 12 free points. We also had two starters that I hope to get their weights filled again soon so we have a full lineup. Injuries in the lower weights seem to hurt most teams, as those weights are hard to fill from the start. There are not too many college athletes who weigh 125 pounds.”

Gilbertson, who leads the team in wins this season with a 14-8 record, is eyeing a Regional All-American spot and being an Academic All-American.

“Both are achievable if I can stay focused in this last month of the season,” Gilbertson said.

Schiltz is optimistic about the team’s outlook continuing into the season.

“We have had our fair share of ups and downs that typically comes with a young team,” Schiltz said. “We plan to be at our healthiest by the national qualifier.”

The Johnnies will hit the mat again on Feb. 4 at the Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Blugold Open.