The Minnewaska Area wrestling team, coached by Chip Rankin, is set to get the new season underway, Friday, Dec. 1 at the Big Lake Invitational.  The Lakers are coming off a 16-9 season from a year ago, a season which included a 2-3 mark in the WCC. 

The home opener is set for Thursday, Dec. 7 when the Lakers are set to host a triangular.

Highlighting last year’s season for the Lakers were state berths by Chase Smith and Miles Wildman.  Wildman went 3-2 at state to place fifth at 106 pounds, while Smith was 2-3 to earn sixth at 120 pounds.  Smith also qualified to state the previous season with Jacob Blair, going 2-2.

Overall, the Lakers had 11 wrestlers competing at the section meet last winter and 10 of them placed fifth or better among the 10 participating schools.

The Lakers, who were also 2-3 in the conference, started out 4-4 and 5-7 overall before winning 11 of their final 13 matches.

•  Team United (Montevideo, LQP Valley and Dawson-Boyd) won last year’s WCC title with a 5-0 league mark, followed by WCA-Ashby-B/E (5-1), Benson (4-2), Morris Area (3-3), Minnewaska Area (2-3), Sauk Centre-Melrose (1-5) and BOLD-BLHS (0-6).

United went on to win the Section 3AA title with a 37-22 win over Marshall before going 2-1 at state to place fifth.

WCA meanwhile, won the Section 6A title with a 48-28 victory over Bertha-Hewitt-Verndale-Parkers Prairie before going on to place sixth at state with a 1-2 record after losing to Medford in the fifth-place match, 37-33.

The Lakers were seeded eighth of 10 teams in their section last year and Minnewaska Area earned a forfeit win over ninth-seeded BOLD before losing to top-seeded KMS in the quarterfinals, 49-18.

KMS went on to beat Minneota in the semifinals before losing to BBE in the Section 5A team finals.  BBE went on to place fourth at state, losing in the third-place match to HLWW, 33-30.

•  Earning All-Conference last season for the Lakers were Wildman and Smith, while senior Nick Ankeny was named to the honorable mention team.

•  Ankeny, one of three senior letterwinners for Minnewaska Area last winter, ended his career with a 111-45 record and 44 pins.  The other seniors were Chase Boelke (63-49 career record) and Xander Johnson.

•  Ankeny was also selected as the MVP of last year’s team, while Smith and Wildman earned the Most Dedicated award, Myles Reichmann earned the Most Improved honor, Mason Schiffler and Eric Bowen were named co-winners of the Adversity award, Jayce Kovarik won the Character award, Noah Jensen was named the Rookie of the Year, Garrett Jungclaus won the Heart and Guts honor, Xander Johnson and Chase Boelke were co-winners of the Mr. Clutch award, and recognized as captains for 2022-23 were Ankeny, Johnson and Boelke.

•  Wildman had a team-best 40-4 record last winter, while Smith was 36-6, Ankeny was 36-4 and Chase Boelke was 28-12.  Also finishing with at least 18 victories last year were Myles Reichmann (26-13), Noah Jensen (25-15), Jayce Kovarik (24-10), Xander Johnson (22-11), Mason Schiffler (18-9) and Nathan Dell (18-16).

•  Chase Smith will go into his junior year with an unofficial overall record of 81-32, while also with over 50 career wins are Mason Schiffler (71-61) and Wildman (54-13).