BISMARCK, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – With two weeks to go before the State Wrestling tournament, the Valley City Hi-Liners are getting ready to make a deep run at the team dual competition. Thursday night, the Hi-Liners traveled to Bismarck for a triangular with the Jamestown Blue Jays and Bismarck Legacy Sabres. Valley City came away with two wins but had to work hard to get them.
In the first match, Valley City wrestled the host Sabres of Legacy. Nicolas Enzminger pinned Koltyn Grebel with 58 seconds left in the third period at 106 to give the Sabres an early 6-0 lead. But the Hi-Lines would take control of the dual by winning the next five matches.
Koye Grebel picked up a major decision, 12-2 over Clark Thompson at 113. Tucker Johnson defeated Joey Enzminger 5-1 at 120. Logan Novara beat Jesse Thompson 7-1 at 126. Ethan Miller pinned Caden Eckroth 45 seconds into their match at 132. And Isaiah Schuldheisz defeated Cannon Bertch 6-1 at 138. When the dust settled, Valley City would be up 19-6.
Isaac Mitchell pinned Espen Kunze with 57 seconds left in the 145 match to make it 19-12. Evan Mielke won by tech fall, 16-1, at 152 to give the Hi-Liners a 24-12 lead. Draken Stugelmeyer pinned Ezra Hanse early in the third period to make it 24-18, but that would be as close as the Sabres would get.
Major decisions by Broden Muske and Jonathan Redfearn at 170 and 182 respectively would make it 32-18. Jonah Schuldheisz and Carson McGough would get pins at 195 and 220 to push the lead to 44-18. Haaken Jacobsen would pin Devyn Thornton at 285 to make the final 44-24.
The second match of the night has the Hi-Liners taking on Jamestown. The two team met on January 2nd in Valley City and the Hi-Liners won that 40-29. Thursday was a different story.
Things started off well, with Koltyn Grebel, Koye Grebel and Logan Novara all picking up major decisions to give Valley City an early 12-0 lead. Sam Schlepuetz won by major decision over Tucker Johnson at 126 to make it 12-4 Valley City.
Aden Braun won a hard fought 12-9 decision over Ethan Miller at 132 to cut the lead to 12-7. Joel Bowman won by major decision over Isaiah Schuldheisz, 19-7, at 138 to pull the Blue Jays to within one at 12-11. Espen Kunze defeated Eric Chea 8-3 at 145 and Evan Mielke beat Josiah Reimers 10-1 at 152 to put the lead back to eight at 19-11. But Colton Mewes defeated Ezra Hanse 13-2 at 160 to get the Blue Jays to within five at 19-15.
Broden Muske picked up a big win at 170 over Jackson Walters. Walters got an escape late in the third period to tie it at 5. They went into overtime where Muske got an escape in the third overtime to win it 6-5. The Hi-Liners now lead 22-15. But Preston Gall picked up an upset of Jonathan Redfearn at 182, winning 3-0 to get the Jays back to within four at 22-18.
Jonah Schuldheisz pinned Dareeyn Davis early in the second period at 195 to make it 28-18. Needing a win at 220 to clinch the match, Carson McGough delivered at 9-4 win to make it 31-18. Damien Krebs, the number three heavyweight in the state, pinned Devyn Thornton halfway through the first period to make the fi nal 31-24.
With the two wins, Valley City is now 19-2 on the year and will be the number one seed out of the east region for the dual state tournament. They will host West Fargo and Carrington for a season ending triangular on Saturday. Both Hi-Liner matches will be on 1490AM KOVC/96.3 FM and video streamed live at newsdakota.com beginning at 12:30.