Battle of Rice County Wrestling Match on KDHL

When the Northfield Raiders and Faribault Falcons wrestle Thursday night at Nomeland Gym KDHL Radio will be there to broadcast the match.  On paper the Raiders are a heavy favorite.  Fotunately for the Falcons wrestling matches take place on a mat, not on paper.

Northfield is ranked 5th in the latest Guillotine Minnesota High School Class 3A Rankings.  Faribault Head Coach Jesse Armbruster told us on the Faribault Coaches Show at Bashers/Faribowl Center last Saturday his belief his team should be in the Lean and Mean portion of the rankings.

The Falcons lost last Friday to #9 rated Farmington 50-15.  Northfield won the Lake City Tournament Saturday by 26 points over Chatfield.  Medford placed fourth in the tournament.  The Raiders amassed 205 points.

In their match with the Tigers, Faribault had victories at 4 weight classes.  Gael Ramirez with a 10-1 major decision over Aiden Han-Lindemeyer at 126 pounds. At 132  DJ Saunders had a Tech Fall 18-2 at 2:41. at 170 Josh Oathoudt registered a 5-4 win over Chase Vought.  Marcus Ramirez edged Jarrod Wisdorf 3-2 at 182.

Vought was ranked #8 at 170 in Class 3A.  Coach Armbruster pointed out Guillotine had Oathoudt ranked #6 at 152 pounds.  A weight he has not wrestled at this season.  The Falcons coach doesn't believe Oathoudt will move down at all for tournament competition because he's wrestled so well at 170.

The Raiders have six wrestlers in the state rankings while Faribault has one individual rated.

For Northfield sophomore Beau Murphy is ranked #10 at 113 pounds.  Junior Chase Murphy is rated #2 at 120 pounds.  Sophomore Jake Messner is #8 at 126 pounds.  Senior Drew Woodley is #3 at 138 after placing second at state last year at that weight and second in 2018 at state at 120 pounds.  He also qualified for state on 2016 and 2017 but did not place at 106 and 120 respectively.  At 160 pounds Northfield sophomore Darrin Kuyper is ranked #8.  At 220 pounds senior David Tonjum is rated #8.

Coach Armbruster knows his team is a huge underdog but points to their win over Owatonna a few years ago in the Section Tournament in Rochester when they also nearly defeated Farmington in the finals.

He says, "Each wrestler needs to go the mat confident they can win.  Then anything can happen."

Coverage should begin approximately 6:45 p.m. if the varsity match is on time.