ZM Varsity earned first place in the FCLMC Holiday Tournament, which consisted of 10 teams from Minnesota and Iowa. Congrats Cougars! Let’s reward them with a big crowd for the first dual of the season vs Stewartville this Wednesday night (12/22)! Wrestling starts at 6pm for the JV and 7pm for the varsity. The youth 5002 club will be introduced Wednesday night as well! Join us for a night of excitement!
Team scores from the Holiday Tournament:
Zumbrota-Mazeppa
247.0
Chatfield
237.5
Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson
159.0
#7 A
GMLOS
137.0
Fillmore C-Lanesboro-M-C Wolves
81.0
Triton
62.0
La Crescent-Hokah
50.0
Wabasha-Kellogg
41.0
Winona-Winona Cotter
30.0
Decorah (IA)
11.0
Every ZM wrestler made the podium with the following place winners:
1st Place 113 – Lucas Williams 120 – Jack Krier 132 – Lucas Schiell 160 – Isaiah O’Reilly 195 – Cody Anderson
2nd Place 126 – Ryan Stimets 138 – Ben Murray 170 – Gabe Tupper 220 – Tucker Buck
3rd Place 145 – Kaleb Lochner 182 – Ryan Lexvold
4th Place 106 – Noah Schaefer 152 – Wilson Nordquist 285 – Dalton Hall
The youth wrestling room is in full swing! Congratulations to the youth wresters of week #2! Cooper Rasmussen (6th grade), Jacob Scharpen (2nd grade) and Greyson Neumann (Kindergarten). Congrats boys and keep up the hard work! The future of Cougar wrestling looks bright!
Varsity, JV and Junior High teams had cancellations this week due to weather on both Friday (Goodhue dual) and Saturday (Mounds View and Ellsworth tournaments). TBD on if or when these will be made up in the future weeks.
Youth practices started in full swing last week, Youth wrestlers of the week include Ryan Plank (6th Grade), Micah Neumann (3rd Grade), and Braxton Lodermeier (Kindergarten). Congrats boys!!
Zumbrota-Mazeppa Varsity and JV teams opened up the weekend in Glencoe at the GSL/LP Don Hall Invite. The varsity competed against 11 teams, earning 4th place in team points. All of the brackets and results can be found on trackwrestling.com.
To summarize here are the team results:
#11 AA
Watertown-Mayer
221
#3 A
Jackson County Central
215
#1 A
Kimball Area
194.5
Zumbrota-Mazeppa
151
New Ulm Area
91
Glencoe
78
Howard Lake/Waverly
69
Saint Claire Mankato Loyola
62.5
Windom/Mountain Lake
44
BOLD
39
LeSeur-Henderson
30
Individual ZM Place Winners:
2nd Place 120 – Jack Krier 132 – Lucas Schiell 138 – Ben Murray
3rd Place 113 – Lucas Williams 145 – Kaleb Lochner 160 – Isaiah O’Reilly 170 – Gabe Tupper
5th Place 126 – Ryan Stimets 182 – Ryan Lexvold
6th Place 152 – Mason Goodman
Ben Murray hit a milestone this weekend with his 50th career varsity victory! Congrats Ben! Looking forward to the next 50!
Junior High and remaining JV traveled to Wabasha to take on 8 other teams from the area. There were 25+ wrestlers from ZM attending this tournament.
Finally, we had 4 youth wrestlers wrestling preseason in Rochester for the YellowJacket Nationals. Jaxon Liffrig (3rd) and Owen Lexvold (4th) reached the podium. Lincoln Toombs (1-2) and Jake Moran (2-2) just missed the podium. But, looking at the pictures, they had a great time.
The 2019-2020 season begins next week and the ZM Wrestling Online Store is now open! The store closes November 23rd and clothing will be available for pick up the week of Dec 16th. Please email Jen with any questions: linkjen13@gmail.com.
Six former Cougar wrestlers will be competing collegiately this 2019-2020 season.
Luke Dahlen, Jarret Haglund, Caden Steffen, and Hayden Voxland are all in their second year of college competition. Sam Nordquist and Tyler Soltau are starting their rookie seasons. Best of luck to all these young men this year! You guys continue to make the ZM community proud!
Luke Dahlen & Jarret Haglund:Â Augustana University – Sioux Falls, SD
Tyler Soltau & Hayden Voxland:Â Southwest Minnesota State University – Marshall, MN
Sam Nordquist:Â Minnesota State University – Mankato, MN
Caden Steffen:Â University of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
And speaking of alumni…be sure to mark your calendars for ZM Wrestling Alumni Night which will be held on Friday, December 20 at our home dual in Mazeppa vs Lake City! More details to come soon, but please start spreading the word to your former teammates. We look forward to seeing lots of former Cougars that night!
The ZM Cougars will host their annual wrestling camp next week in Mazeppa. ZM students in grades K – 12 (2018-2019) are encouraged to participate. Please contact Link Steffen with any questions about camp @ 507-358-1344.
Schedule:
Monday- Thursday
5:00 – 6:00pm    Grades K – 6 (2018-2019)
6:15 – 7:30pm       Grades 7 – 12 (2018-2019)
This year’s camp technicians are Devin Skatzka (Mon/Tues) & Caden Steffen (Wed/Thurs) from the Minnesota Gophers.
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Devin Skatzka
 2018-19 • JUNIOR
Overall Record: 30-11 Dual Meet Record: 13-4 Big Ten Record: 13-5 Pins: 2 Major Decisions: 13 Technical Falls: 5
University of MN: Third Place at Daktronics Open  • Won 8 straight dual bouts between Dec. 30 and Feb. 3  • Led team in major decisions  • Placed third at Big Ten Championships with last second takedown for the victory over Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola • Finished 8th at NCAA Championships for first All-American honor • Notched his career high h in victories in first year at Minnesota Prior to Minnesota: Wrestled at Indiana University prior to joining the Gophers • Two-time NCAA Qualifier • Seventh-place finish at the 2017 Big Ten Championships • Eighth-place finish at the 2018 Big Ten Championships • Fifth-place finish at the 2017 Midlands Championships High School: Graduate of Richmond High School • Four-time Michigan State Champion • Two-time Michigan State Team Champion • Two-time team state runner-up • Three-time Cliff Keen and FloWrestling All-American • Set Richmond’s fall record • First-team All-State football • Four-sport letter-winner (wrestling, football, baseball and track)
University of MN: Third Place at SDSU Daktronics Open beating two ranked D II opponents on the day• NDSU Bison Open 5th place • Won first collegiate tournament at Worthington Open recording a major decision & technical fall in route to the championship • 3rd at North Country Open High School: 2x state champion • 3x state finalist • 3x team state finalist • 2x team state champion • MN/USA Greco/Freestyle state champion • 2nd @ Fargo Greco Nationals     • 2016 Greco All-American • 2017 Virginia Beach National Champion • 2017 Folkstyle All-American • Multiple-time MN Storm Greco/Freestyle team member
Special shout-out to those wrestlers who helped with the highway clean-up on May 20th! The ZM wrestling team has cleaned a two mile section of Hwy 52 North and South every year since 2010. Thanks for your community service!
Pictured from left to right are: John Poulin, Ethan Kovars, Jack Haglund, Michael Majerus, Luke Krier, Cole Poncelet, Gabe Tupper, Evan Groby, and William Stussey. Â
Our former ZM wrestlers are thriving at the next level!Â
Congratulations to Luke Dahlen for receiving the ‘Purple-Heart’ award at Augustana’s wrestling banquet last weekend! The Purple-Heart Award goes to a wrestler who never gives up, never complains, works hard, and pours his heart into the wrestling program! Congratulations, Luke!
Congratulations to Hayden Voxland for being voted by his teammates as SMSU Wrestling Captain for the 2019-2020 season! Hayden’s relentless wrestling style and hard work ethic made him an obvious choice to be voted as captain! Maybe most impressive is next year will only be Hayden’s 2nd year at SMSU! Congratulations Hayden…what an accomplishment!Â
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Congratulations to Caden Steffen for earning the Freshman Academic Award with a 3.6 GPA his first year at the University of Minnesota!  As his dad, I know Caden worked as hard on his academics as he did his wrestling skills and it paid off! Way to go Caden, I hope your message that academics are more important than wrestling reaches all our younger ZM wrestlers!  Proud of you!
Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougar Wrestling 