Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougar Wrestling

On Saturday, the youth wrestlers had a huge turnout in Plainview for Festivas for the Wrestivas youth tournament. Here is a picture of only part of our crew that showed up (most of the 5th and 6th graders had a later weigh in). These are awesome numbers! I heard everyone had an awesome time, especially watching Santa pinning the Grinch.

The youth wrestlers of the week are Peter Klapperich, Austin Auger, and Owen Stone. Congrats boys! Seeing the number of wrestlers we have, this is quite a honor!

Finally, our 2021-2022 5002 Club were indoctrinated during our dual with Stewartville! These wrestlers began workouts in July and performed 5002 pushups, sit-ups, and burpees heading into the start of wrestling season in November. There names will be added on the wall next to past 5002 members. Congrats!

Patrick Fruth
Bryce Gerdes
Kason Hill
Jonah Karow
Owen Lexvold
Jaxon Liffrig
Jacob Matthees
Levi Matthees
Jase McNamara
Kade McNamara
Gabe O’Connor
Teddy O’Connor
Elih Schaefer
Lincoln Toombs

ZM rolled in their dual against Pine Island to a 79-0 score on Thursday night in Mazeppa.

Lucas Williams earned his 100th varsity victory in this dual. Congrats on this huge accomplishment Lucas!

Gabe Tupper recently earned his 75th career victory and Kaleb Lochner notched his 50th in the Bi-State tournament in La Crosse last weekend. Congrats boys!

Here is a link to a photo album for both varsity and JV matches vs Pine Island: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JkUVqsZfMtNoSfjB8

Join us in Mazeppa to cheer on the ZM Cougars as they battle with Pine Island. JV matches begin at 6PM with Varsity beginning at 7PM! Hope to see you there!

The ZM K-6 Youth team participated in a 6 team tournament in Maple River last weekend. The team went 3-1 with wins over LCWM, PEM, and Maple River/USC. In the championship match they lost a nail biter by 2 points to Westfield. Great job guys!

This weekend there are two individual tournaments coming up. Plainview is on Saturday and Stewartville on Sunday.

Plainview’s tournament is for all skill levels, experience, and ages from pre-k-6th grade. Nicknamed Festivus for the wrestivus (for any Seinfeld fans). The tournament tries to make the brackets competitive by matching up similar wrestlers in each bracket. You don’t need to pre register for this one…just show up and sign up there. More information about this tournament can be found on the Guillotine here: https://theguillotine.com/festivus-for-the-wrestivus/

Stewartville’s tournament is a bit more advanced and is a MN/USA tournament to qualify for the state tournament in March. You need to purchase an MN/USA card (good for 1 year) as well as the cost of entry to the tournament. This tournament requires you to sign up online the day before the tournament (8pm cutoff). More information about this tournament can be found on track wrestling here: https://www.trackwrestling.com . Need to click on Events and search for Stewartville.

Any questions about these tournaments, please ask a coach!

Out of 70 teams, the ZM wrestlers finished 7th overall at the Bi-State Classic, which consists of teams from Wisconsin and Minnesota. ZM was the top team from Minnesota, and finished 3rd in the ‘AA’ tier of teams. Individually, we had 8 wrestlers make the podium in brackets of 50-60 wrestlers.

2nd place – Jack Krier

5th place – Gabe Tupper

8th place – Lucas Schiell

10th place – Lucas Williams

10th place – Kaleb Lochner

11th place – Isaiah O’Reilly

11th place – Ryan Lexvold

12th place – Noah Schaefer

Great showing by ZM, and a ton of fun to watch online live!

Day 1 is complete and ZM is in 4th overall place out of 70 teams competing in the Bi-State Classic in La Crosse. ZM is also the top point earning team in the “AA” division.

ZM has 2 wrestlers in the semifinals (Jack Krier and Gabe Tupper) and 7 alive in the consolation bracket (Noah Schaefer, Lucas Williams, Lucas Schiell, Ben Murray, Kaleb Lochner, Isaiah O’Reilly, and Ryan Lexvold).

You can watch the action on Day 2 (12/30) by going to https://bistateclassic.com/video-streaming beginning at 9:15am. You can use trackwrestling.com to get mat assignments for ZM wrestlers as well. (Go to events, enter Bi-state tournament, then click on mat assignments, by team, and select Zumbrota-Mazeppa). That way you know what mat to view on video streaming link above.

Good luck tomorrow Cougars!!

Christmas week started off with the new wrestlers of the week crowned (or I guess belted). These guys have been giving their best effort in the room and have earned this honor! Congrats boys! The honors were earned by Teddy O’Connor, Oakley Klepperich, and Moxson Liffrig.

Here are links to photo albums for both the Wabasha-Kellogg and the Caladonia JV/JH matches. Please feel free to download and use any pictures you would like…

Caladonia: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sAAKR71qzpA2oJsP6

Wabasha-Kellogg: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aiRF3oyJcoL8zbe88

ZM Varsity hosted our first dual this season and won convincingly 64-9 vs Stewartville. Several anticipated matchups went ZMs way, led by #4 AA Jack Krier’s 8-2 decision over #9 AA Reid Rinn.

Click here for a link to photo album for the dual (both varsity and JV)

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