Rochester, MN -
The Yellowjacket open was a tough 16 team tournament which included some of the top teams in Division 2, 3 and Junior College Levels. A few of them included: St. Cloud State, Augustana, Mankato State, UMary, UW-Lacrosse, RCTC, Iowa Central.
The host RCTC Yellowjackets finished with 5 place winners. Nate Beberg the highest finisher at 3rd in the Heavyweight Bracket and Braden Thom 3rd place at 133 going 3-1 while teammate Jackson McCormick went 4-1 (3 by fall) to take 5th place.
Tate Karver, a sophomore from Chatfield lost his first round to the eventual champ before rattling off 3 straight victories losing to a D2 wrestler in the blood round. Yellowjacket returning National Qualifier Walker Ingham went 2-2 losing to the 4th and 5th place finisher. Mitchell Nowlan also at 174 went on to a 4th place finish in his first collegiate tournament.
Antony Tuttle at 184lbs lost a super tight first round match to Iowa Central’s Gavin Carter who finished as runner up. Tuttle went 4-1 with 3 falls to end the day. At 197 lbs Martin Prieto went 2-2 losing a tight match in the consolation semis. In one of the toughest brackets of the tournament Rocci Visci took 6th losing to the eventual champ from St. Cloud in a wild match.
Some of the other highlights throughout the tournament included a highly ranked D2 battle between 2 conference foes in Paxton Creese (SCSU) and Jaxon Rohman (Aug) where Rohman fought back from a deficit to earn the go ahead takedown in the final 10 seconds. At 133lbs there were 5 nationally ranked guys. In the finals the #1 ranked wrestler from UMary suffered a slight upset by 3x All-American from SCSU Meekins.
The finals bout at 157lbs included #5 Colby Njos beating fellow top 10 ranked Miles Fitzgerald 4-0. UMary had the 1st of two champs here at 165lbs in Braydon Huber who pulled off some big wins along the way including a win over Augustana’s Tyler Wagener who was a national qualifier. Abner Romero at 174lbs a former NAIA National Champion recently transferred into St. Cloud started off his season in dominant fashion. Earning bonus points in his first 2 rounds before beating fellow top 10 guy Bruss in the finals. UMary’s second champion Wyatt Lidberg from powerhouse high school STMA won 8-5 in the championship. In a crazy back and forth round robin at 197lbs in the Open Division saw Dom Murphy of St. Cloud come out on top after winning several competitive matches.
“Overall we saw some good things out of our guys, but definitely lots to work on. We had a couple guys that were disappointed in their performances but also a few guys that stepped up and turned some heads. We wanted to host a tough tournament and really see where we are at. It elt good to have a big tough tournament back in the RCTC Fieldhouse again. We look to make some improvements this week and be ready for battle again next weekend. Next up for RCTC we head down to the Luther Open in Dubuque, IA.
We have some fun home duals at the beginning of December we would like to have big crowds for. Friday Dec. 2nd at 6:30 we battle Augsburg, then Thursday Dec. 8th its a Tri with UW-Lacrosse and Iowa Lakes starting at 5:30” Come watch and get loud. Roll Hive! - Coach Hack
