This Saturday in Owatonna is the last chance to qualify for the MN/USA Kids & Cadets State Freestyle Tournament. MN State Greco is an open tournament. If you plan on wrestling at Northern Plains in June, you must wrestle in the State Tournament. Online registration for the State Tournament will close Sunday, May 10 at 10:00 PM.
Upcoming Events
Freestyle/Greco practice has been rescheduled to Thursday night this week. Joey Majerus will be leading.
Ryan Lexvold, Hayden Voxland, Hayden Stensland, Jarret Haglund, Michael Majerus, Caden Steffen, and Jacob Bennett took to the mat in Stewartville on Saturday competing in both Greco-Roman and Freestyle.
Upcoming Events
The ZM Wrestling Summer Camp will run from June 1st-4th. The camp will be run by Minnesota Golden Gophers. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity! To sign up, please fill out and mail in the registration form. Please note that the Community Ed brochure sent home earlier this week had the incorrect dollar amount for 2 siblings.
Wrestlers born September 1, 1995 and later who are enrolled in grades 9-12 during the 2015 spring semester are eligible for the Junior Greco-Roman and Freestyle State Championships next weekend in Forest Lake. This tournament will be used as a basis for selecting the Junior National Teams. Pre-registration deadline is 5:00 PM on Thursday. Full details here.
Thank you to all the volunteers that helped clean the ZM Wrestling stretch of road ditches on Tuesday!
Upcoming Events
Adopt-a-Highway cleanup is scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday, April 14th. Wrestlers and volunteers are to meet at Link’s house at 5 PM. Appropriate dress would include pants, gloves, and old shoes or work boots. Safety vests and garbage bags will be provided.
Freestyle/Greco practice has been pushed back one hour to 7:30 PM for Tuesday to allow enough time to do roadside cleanup and attend practice.
The youth program held their annual end of the year party at the Mazeppa Community Center. A potluck was had followed by awards and games. Thanks again to everyone for their efforts this year!
Caden Steffen, Spencer DeFrang, Ryan Lexvold, and Michael Majerus competed in Apple Valley at the Freestyle tournament on Saturday. Ryan also wrestled in the Greco event on Friday night.
A total of 9 wrestlers continued to work on their craft this weekend. 7 wrestled Freestyle in Eastview on Saturday. They were Jacob Bennett, Michael Majerus, Hayden Voxland, Caden Steffen, Ryan Lexvold, Jarret Haglund, and Tyler Soltau. Hayden Stensland and Maverick Jackson traveled to Iowa and competed against the nation’s best in the USA Folkstyle Nationals.
We are excited to have Joel Bauman leading our FS/GR practice tomorrow night at 6:30 in Mazeppa. Joel is a 2010 graduate from Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg. He is a 2x Minnesota state champion and part of the 2009 KMS state championship team. In 2007, he was a Cadet national champ in Greco, 2008 (2nd), 2009 (8th) and 2010 (2nd). Earned Greco All-American honors at Junior Nationals in Fargo. Joel went on to wrestle for the University of Minnesota, but had concussion problems resulting in his college career to be cut short. This past year he got back in mat. Over Christmas Joel competed in the Minnesota Storm Holiday Cup against the top Greco athletes in Minnesota placing 2nd. He recently got back from training at the Olympic training site in Colorado. There he trained with top athletes in USA and is ranked #8 in the nation at his weight class.
Congratulations to Cole Schiell and Jack Smothers for placing at the NYWA Individual State Tournament this weekend. Cole earned 4th and Jack placed 3rd. Isaiah O’Reilly took 2nd at the Invite and Mason Edstrom placed 3rd. The 7th and 8th graders went 2-3 at the NYWA team tournament.
8 wrestlers traveled to Detroit Lakes to compete in the Freestyle and Greco-Roman tournament on Saturday. They were Michael Vath, Spencer DeFrang, Caden Steffen, Luke Tupper, Hayden Voxland, Maverick Jackson, Jarret Haglund, and Hayden Stensland.
Nine K-8 wrestlers qualified for the NYWA State Tournament by placing in the top 3 of their division this weekend. Earning trips were Sam Moore, Cole Schiell, Jack Krier, Kaleb Lochner, Ryan Lexvold, Jack Smothers, Tanner Mancilman, John Poulin, and Tyler Soltau. Also placing in the top 6 were Gunner Mancilman, Isaiah O’Reilly, Mason Edstrom, and Cole Poncelet.
Leading the Freestyle/Greco-Roman practice this Tuesday will be Paul Pagel. Paul was a Junior Greco-Roman All-American. He was also an All-American wrestler for the Mavericks of Minnesota State University, Mankato. Practice will run from 6:30 to 7:30 PM Tuesday in Mazeppa. Don’t miss out on this chance to learn some great upper body technique.
Summer wrestling practices for Grades 3-6 are being offered through InnerDrive of Rochester. Here is more information regarding these practices along with a sign-up form.
The youth team season came to an end today bowing out in Eyota at the Region 1 qualifier. We have many wrestlers still alive in the individual competition that will take place Friday and Saturday in Byron. The youth will practice on Tuesday from 6:00 to 6:30, and again on Thursday. All are welcome to stay for the Freestyle/Greco-Roman practice from 6:30 to 7:30 on Tuesday that will be led by Chad Matthees.
A reminder to all individuals who qualified for regions: you need to register by Tuesday at 5 PM on the NYWA-MN.com website.
ZM wrestling is having Freestyle/Greco-Roman open mat practices once a week starting Tuesday, March 17th in the Mazeppa wrestling room. A total of 9 practices for any ZM wrestler K-12. There is no cost. Currently scheduled and very excited to lead these practices include Chad Matthees, Paul Pagel, and Joey Majerus.
Here is a great article that explains why one should consider wrestling Greco-Roman and Freestyle in the spring. In short- these practices are designed to be relaxed and fun, yet very productive. No worries about cutting weight. No pressure from a team. You can focus on individual skills and experiment with different things. Don’t worry about not knowing the ins-and-outs of these styles, wrestling is wrestling. My son Ryan really enjoys FS/GR and looks forward to attending the practices as well as the local and regional tournaments.
The current schedule is as follows. Practices will run from 6:30 – 7:30 PM.
More information about FS/GR and a calendar of tournaments can be found at http://www.mnusawrestling.org/.
Another oppoturnity is the Cannon Falls Mat Rats Freestyle Program. It starts Tuesday, March 17th. The practices are open for K-12 and are held Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:30 PM until 8:00 PM. Full calendar is here. The practices are run by Chad Otterness.
Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougar Wrestling 