College Sports: Ridgewater Warriors wrestling sends 7 to nationals
Feb. 18—ROCHESTER — The Ridgewater wrestling team sent seven wrestlers to the North Plains National Qualifier on Sunday. And all seven are headed to nationals.
Three Warriors — Cole Holien, Taedon Nichols and Tucker Hugg — won their respective brackets. Ross Meskimen qualified after a second-place finish. Brady Holien, Cody Brott and Terrell Renne will also go to nationals as wild cards.
Ridgewater finished third in the team standings with 82 points. Rochester Community and Technical College won with 105.5, followed by Minnesota North-Itasca with 103.
"This was our best performance of the year by far," said Ridgewater co-head coach Travis Deegan. "We attacked positions, scored bonus points and wrestled with a relentless pacce.
"We're very proud of how these guys wrestled and represented our program and school."
The NJCAA Wrestling Championships take place on March 1-2 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Cole Holien was also unanimously voted the Minnesota College Athletic Conference's Outstanding Wrestler of the Year. The sophomore from Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City won the 141-pound bracket, going 2-0 on Sunday. He pinned Itasca's Nelson Anderson in 1 minute, 55 seconds in the final. Cole has a 34-9 record on the season and will go to nationals for the second time.
Nichols is also headed to nationals for the second time. The sophomore from Siren, Wisconsin was the 157 champion after pinning RCTC's Gavin Gust in 27 seconds in the championship match.
Hugg, a freshman from St. Cloud, claimed the 285 championship after getting a fall in 6:19 over Minnesota North-Itasca's Andreas Barnett.
Meskimen also qualified for nationals after finishing second at 184. The sophomore from Rogers went 2-1. He lost to RCTC's Antony Tuttle by 18-3 tech fall in the finlas before winning a 15-11 decision in a true second-place match over Itasca's Landon Kiser.
Brady Holien, a sophomore from ACGC, is nationals bound for the second straight season after placing third at 149. Brott (freshman, St. Cloud Tech) was third at 174 and Renne (freshman, ACGC) was third at 197. Wild card bids are selected by coaches vote.
Also qualifying for nationals by coaches vote was Willmar High School grad Joe Kallevig. The redshirt freshman for Minnesota West placed third at 165 with a 1-1 record.
Ridgewater almost knocked off the seventh-ranked team in the nation Saturday at Willmar.
Riverland Community College of Austin beat Ridgewater in overtime.
The Blue Devils (26-2) are ranked seventh in the NJCAA Division III rankings.
They were led by DeWayne Thompson's 24 points. Christian Campbell and Savier McCall each added 20 and Daeshawn Jackson had 12 with Nazih Chehade scoring 10.
Thompson is a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard from Two Rivers High School in Mendota Heights. Campbell is a 6-4 freshman from Miami, Florida. McCall is a 6-4 sophomore from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Jackson is a 6-3 sophomore from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chehade is a 6-3 freshman from Pompano Beach, Florida.
Five players scored in double figures for Ridgewater. Aiden Wichmann, a 6-2 freshman from Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, had 20 points. Marwan Abdi, a 6-4 sophomore from St. Peter, had 16 points, Noah Wilts, a 6-1 sophomore from Marshall, added 15, going 5-for-5 from 3-point range. Keegan Chrider, a 5-11 freshman from Cambridge-Isanti, added 13 and Khald Muhumed, a 6-2 freshman from Willmar, scored 11.
Ridgewater (13-12) wraps up the regular season with a game at Minnesota West Community & Technical College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Worthington.
