The Otter Tail Central traveled to Ortonville on Tuesday for a triangular with the Ortonville Trojans and the newly co-oped Breckenridge-Wahpeton Storm.  

The Bulldogs and Storm started off the triangular and wrestled a very competitive back and forth dual. Eventually, the Storm ended up on the winning edge by a final of 45-36.  

The match started off strong right away for the Bulldogs as Mason Christianson was able to get a pin over Riley Kappes at 106 lbs. giving the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead.  Then at 113 lbs., Julian Umlauf received a forfeit giving the Bulldogs a 12-0 lead.  

The Storm then came back at 120 lbs., as Colman Barth was able to get the fall over Tayden Soma making the score 12-6. The Bulldogs then returned a forfeit back to the Storm, tying the dual at 12-12.  

At 132 lbs. Carson Roehl of the Bulldogs was able to get his first varsity win of his career when he pinned Henry Slettedahl, this gave the Bulldogs the lead once again at 18-12.  Brien Poser kept his winning streak alive after he defeated Weston Jensen by fall as well, putting the Bulldogs up 24-12.  

At 145 lbs., Tommy Ehlert had a back and forth match before eventually losing by fall to Hunter Owen, making the score 24-18 in favor of the Bulldogs.  

The most exciting match of the night was at 152 lbs., as Logan Schleske took on long time foe Aidan Ruddy of Breckenridge-Wahpeton. These two have had many close matches over the years and this one was no different. Schleske came out and got a takedown making the score 2-0 at the end of the first period. Ruddy started the second period down and was able to get an escape making the score 2-1. Both wrestlers went back and forth, before Ruddy was able to get a takedown late in the period along with two near fall points. This made the score 5-2 going into the third period.  

Schleske started in the down position and was able to get an escape making the score 5-3. After many takedown attempts, the time eventually ran out with Ruddy on top 5-3. This gave the Storm 3 team points, closing the team score to 24-21.  

At 160 lbs., Anibal Franco took on Myles Hinkley and after a back and forth match, the Breckenridge-Wahpeton wrestler was able to get the fall, putting the Storm up 27-24.  

At 170 lbs., Jaxon Rich controlled the match for the most part and eventually got the fall against Grant Davis, putting the Bulldogs back on top 30-27. The Bulldogs were open at 182 lbs., giving the Storm the lead once again 33-30.  At 195 lbs., Wyatt Differding of the Storm scored a first period pin against the Bulldogs Jonny Fielding.  This put the Storm up 39-30.  

At 220 lbs., the Bulldogs had to forfeit to Jackson Burchill, this clinched the meet for Storm putting them up 45-30.  At heavyweight, the Bulldogs put Kale Rich out against Logan Schwartz. Rich was able to get the pin in the second period making the final 45-36.

“This was a very fun dual that kept going back and forth. There were a couple of toss up matches that we came up on the short end. Both Tommy Ehlert and Anibal Franco had their opponents on their backs during their matches, if either were able to secure the pin, we win this match. I was very pleased with the way the Bulldogs wrestled,” said head coach Jason Rogers. 

Next the Bulldogs wrestled the Trojans of Ortonville.  

“Unfortunately, the Trojans had a lot of open weights tonight, so we didn’t get a lot of live wrestling,” said Rogers.  

There were only five weights that had actual matches. The Bulldogs went 3-2 in these matches, with Tayden Soma getting a fall at 113 lbs., Brien Poser getting a fall at 145 lbs. and Kale Rich getting a fall at heavyweight.  

The final score ended up with the Bulldogs winning 60-23.