Eight members of the Minnewaska Area wrestling team competed at the Jackhammer Invitational at Pine River, Friday and Saturday.

There were a total of 29 teams taking part in the meet with Totino-Grace edging BBE for first and the Lakers earning 15th.

Miles Wildman had the high finish for the Lakers, going 4-1 to place second at 127 pounds, losing only to the second-ranked wrestler in the state in the finals.

This week, the Lakers close out the 2023 portion of their schedule with a rare afternoon match against the Benson Braves.

The match with Benson, which had been set for Friday, Dec. 22, was pushed ahead to 2 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 21, giving the Minnewaska Area High School student body a chance to watch the action.

The Lakers are 0-2 overall in dual matches and won’t have another match until Friday, Jan. 12 when the team is set to host the Minnewaska Area Invitational.

Pine River Invite

The Lakers competed at the Pine River “Jackhammer Invitational”, Friday and Saturday, but brought only eight wrestlers along.  Totino-Grace had 209.5 points to win the 29-team title, which included some of the top Class A and AA teams and wrestlers in the state.

BBE earned second with 187.5 points, while Pequot Lakes Area was third (160), Mille Lacs fourth (146.5), Big Lake fifth (145) and Minnewaska Area 15th with 64 points.

Three of the Lakers placed, including freshman Miles Wildman, who was 4-1 to earn second at 121 pounds; junior Chase Smith, who was 4-3 at 127 pounds to earn sixth; and ninth-grader Landon Schiffler, who was 3-3 at 107 to place eighth.

Wildman, who is 9-1 for the season and already has an unofficial 63 wins for his career, won his first four matches with pins in 1:33, 28 seconds, 1:15 and 4:46 before losing by an 11-3 major to Jackson Refsnider, a sophomore from Totino-Grace.

Refsnider is ranked second at 121 pounds in Class AA, while Wildman is ranked third.

Smith won his first two matches with pins in 3:00 and 50 seconds, but lost in the quarterfinals by a 14-6 major.  In the consolation round, he won on a fall in 2:09 and 5-0 decision before losing on a 15-6 major and injury default in the fifth place match.

Schiffler lost his first match, but won his first three consolation matches before losing twice to place eighth.

Isaiah Rosario (at 139 pounds) and Myles Reichmann (at 172) both won their first two matches before losing twice, while Braylen Scharmer (160), Cole Kittelson (172) and Eric Bowen (285) all lost their first two matches and were eliminated.

Other wrestling notes

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.

•  Two big changes for wrestling this year are the change from 14 weights to 13 and the switch from Section 5A to Section 8AA.

This year, high school wrestlers will use 13 weight classes as follows — 107, 114, 121, 127, 133, 139, 145, 152, 160, 172, 189, 215 and 285.  The old system used 14 weight classes; 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285.

There are still nine weight classes from 160 pounds down, but the new system basically takes out one of the five heaviest weight classes. 

•  United (Monte, LQP and DB) 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 (2-3), SC-Melrose (1-5) and BOLD-BLHS (0-6).

at Pine River Jackhammer Invitational

Team scoring:

(1) Totino-Grace 209.5  (2) BBE 187.5  (3) Pequot Lakes 160  (4) Mille Lacs 146.5  (5) Big Lake 145, Hutchinson 137.5, HLWW 119, Perham 99, NYM 98.5, LPGE-Brow 96, Rock Ridge 91.5, Deer River 85.5, Paynesville 77, Albany 74, Minnewaska Area 64, Centennial 63.5, Walker-Hacken 55.5, CEC Lumberjacks 53.5, Detroit Lakes 52, Irondale 51.5, Proctor-Herman 51, Aitkin 47.5, Crookston 46, Barnesville 44.5, Blackduck-CL 41, Hibbing 40.5, SC-Mel 36.5, Crosby-Iron 31, OTC 19

Waska individual results:

107:  Landon Schiffler 3-3 (eighth place)

121:  Miles Wildman 4-1 (second)

127:  Chase Smith 4-3 (sixth)

139:  Isaiah Rosario 2-2

160:  Braylen Scharmer 0-2

172:  Cole Kittelson 0-2

172:  Myles Reichmann 2-2

285:  Eric Bowen 0-2

Minnewaska wrestling 

records for 2023-24

Weight:  Name Grade W-L

107:  Landon Schiffler 9 7-4

107:  Alex Adams 8 0-1

127:  Miles Wildman 9 9-1

127:  Garrett Jungclaus 12 0-2

133:  Chase Smith 11 6-5

133:  Jude Bailey 8 1-3

139:  Isaiah Rosario 8 4-6

152:  Nathan Dell 12 2-2

152:  Sawyer Erickson 8 0-1

160:  Jayce Kovarik 12 1-1

160:  Braylen Scharmer 10 2-4

172:  Cole Kittelson 12 2-5

189:  Myles Reichmann 12 5-5

215:  Zayden Johnson 8 0-2

215:  Riley Dell 10 1-0

285:  Eric Bowen 10 0-4

Check out more photos in our photo gallery!