CASSELTON, N.D. (NewsDakota.com, submitted by Kyle Hewitt) The Carrington Cardinals wrestling team shared the top spot with the Pembina County North (PCN) Grizzlies scoring 218.5 points to claim the Region 2 championship Saturday in Casselton. The Cardinals had 11 wrestlers in action and 10 of those 11 earned a trip to the state tournament finishing in the top 4 of there weight class. The Cards crowned 7 individual champions out of the 14 weight classes. PCN crowned 3 champions, and both Central Cass (CC) and Hillsboro-Central Valley (HCV) had 2 champions.
Tournament champs for Carrington included 113 pounder Treston Lura who was in control of his championship match versus a PCN opponent who was disqualified and led to a forfeit of all of his team points. Lura, the number 1 seed will enter the state tourney with a 48-6 record. Matthew Duchscherer at 120 pounds defeating Chance Burns of Grafton 11-6 in the finals. Duchscherer, started the season late due to injury will take a 21-7 record into the state tourney. Brecken Lura defeated Jayce Horgan of PCN 6-4 in the 132 pound final. Brecken improved to 39-10 overall. Tate Hoggarth spotted Harvey-Wells County (HWC) wrestler Carson Mertz a 5-0 lead and came back to win an exciting 9-8 decision to improve to 47-7 on the season. Michael Clifton only had 1 match to claim his 170 pound title. Clifton, the top seed received an opening round bye, a forfeit from a Larimore wrestler in the semifinals put Michael into the finals where he took care of HWC’s Nickolas Dossenko by pin at 1:50 of the first period. Clifton, a sophomore, improved to 47-6. Top seeded Beau Retzlaff at 195 pounds pinned Garrett Haugen of CC in 1:17 of the first period to claim his title and improved to 39-13. Colton Buskness joined the team late this year. wrestling his 18th match of the year, defeated top seeded Eli Bjornstad of PCN 8-1 in the finals. Bskness lost to Bjornstad a week earlier in the dual championships in Carrington.
Trace Hoggarth, third at 106, Kael Kovar, third at 126, and Jonathan Lura, fourth at 145 also qualified for the state tourney
Eighth grader Joe Lindberg finished 5th at 138 pounds.
Other champions:
106—Cade Olson-Tingelstad—CC
126—Luke Leshuk–HCV
138–Preston Litton–PCN
145–Tanner Urlaub–PCN
152–Aidan Olson-Tingelstad–CC
182–Gavin Wright–HCV
285–Andre LeTexier–PCN
Shon Horgan of PCN was voted the 2020 Region 2 coach of the year and HCV wrestler Luke Leshuk was awarded the 2020 senior wrestler of the year.
Team scores:
1.)Carrington 218.5
PCN 218.5
3.) Central Cass 171.5
4.) HCV 126
5.) Larimore 100
6.) Grafton 95
7.) HWC 89
8.) Mayport-CG 34
9.) Northwood 32