The Otter Tail Central Bulldogs started off their 2021-22 wrestling season at the Dan Unruh Invitational in Wahpeton this past weekend.  

Coach Jason Rogers was very pleased with the effort of his team.  

“We are a team of very mixed abilities, I have a combination of very experienced wrestlers at about 6 weight classes and I have 6 weight classes that are first year varsity wrestlers.  I am hoping that my experienced wrestlers will be able to inspire the younger guys and show them what it takes to be successful at the varsity level,” he said.  

The team ended up in ninth place with 101 team points scored.  Those team points came from having one champion in Brien Poser at 138 pounds.  Poser defeated both Tyson Johnson from Kindred and Bailey Peichel from Frazee by fall, before defeating Mike Nelson of Lisbon in the finals by a score of 8-7.  

“Brien really had a fun final match, it was going back and forth before Brien hit a 5 point move early in the 3rd period which put him up for good.”  

Other place finishers included: Logan Schleske taking third at 152 lbs, Jaxon Rich taking fourth at 160 lbs, Kale Rich taking fourth at 220 lbs, Brock Hasling taking sixth at 182 lbs and Tayden Soma taking 6th at 113 lbs.  

“All of these young men wrestled really well, both Logan and Jaxon had very competitive semifinal matches, as Logan lost a close match 4-2 with eventual champion Gabe Nagel of Frazee and Jaxon lost a 1-0 decision to Tyson Brandt of Brookings, S.D.  So we were very close to having 3 in the finals.”

The Bulldogs have a very busy week ahead of them, as they travel to Sebeka on Tuesday for a triangular with Park Region Conference foes United North Central and Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parkers Prairie.  Wrestling will start at 5 pm.  

On Thursday, they will travel to Wadena for a quadrangular with Wadena-Deer Creek, Pelican Rapids and West Central Area-Ashby-Brandon-Evansville, also a 5 p.m start.  

Finally, the Bulldogs wrap up their week with a tournament on Saturday in Barrett for the Grant County Invitational.