Fusion sending 8 to state meet

Eight members of the Sauk Centre-Melrose boys swim team are heading to the state meet this weekend.
Chad Rueter, Ben Frericks, Eddie Bosl, Gregg Stein, Shay Mieczkowski, Jay Zachman, Jacob Koetter and Alex Beste are all going.

All three relay teams advance. The 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams as well as the 200 medley relay team advanced.

Shay Mieczkowski, Jacob Koetter and Jay Zachman all advanced in the 100 freetyle. Mieczkowski is ranked ninth heading in with Koetter 13th and Zachman 14th. The top eight finishers receive all state honors.

Mieczkowski also advanced in the 200 freestyle where his seed time ranks 12th.  Zachman advances in the 200 individual medley and is ranked 10th. Eddie Bosl advances in the 100 butterfly and sits at 18th in seed time. Koetter advances in the 50 freestyle and is in 19th.


In all the Fusion will competet in eight events.

A great day for the Fusion!

- BZ

Gusewelle and Grow advance to state

As expected John Gusewelle coasted through the 189-pound field, winning his second straight section championship. Last year he won at 160 pounds. Gusewelle pinned Paynesville's Andrew Moser to win this year's title. He pinned him in the opening round.

Gusewelle pins Paynesville's Andrew Moser in the first period 

as coaches Ken Vogt (left) and Warren Stone look on.

Lucian Grow, another senior with state tournament dreams, also won a section title by winning at 152 pounds. Grow will be making his first appearance down at the state wrestling meet, which begins Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center.

Lucian Grow tangles with his opponent in the 

152-pound title match. Grow got down early 5-2, and was almost pinned, 

then came back and took a 6-5 lead. He wound up winning the match 10-8.

It was quite a day for Grow. He started the day off by singing the national anthem and capped it off with a section title. It might be hard to top that, but he'll do his best.

"I want to go down there and do the best I can," Grow said after his win. "I just want to beat everyone I am capable of beating."

Gusewelle's goal? After finishing third a year ago, the senior is looking for nothing less than a state title.

"I want to go down and win it," he said.

Look for more on the section wrestling meet in this week's Herald.

Congrats to John and Lucian! Go get em at state boys!

-BZ

Seniors strong at section wrestling

Hall-of-fame coach Ken Vogt (right) and his son and former Streeter state champion 

Ethan Vogt direct senior Nathan Walter in section wrestling action. 

Walter lost his first round match.

It took senior 189-pounder John Gusewelle only 27 seconds to pin Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City's Lucas Damm Friday at the section wrestling tournament being held in Sauk Centre.

A large crowd gathered for a long evening of grappling Friday, which turned out to be a good night for three of the team's seniors. Shane Trattles needed just 62 seconds to pin his first round opponent, Daniel Rooney of BBE. Trattles will face ACGC's Lucas Bomstaad in the semifinals tomorrow. Bomstaad is 33-6 on the year. he pinned Osakis' Cole Erie (24-9) in the third period of his first round match. Trattles' record is 28-8 as he goes for 30 wins tomorrow. The match between him and Bomstaad should be a good one.

Trattles focuses on his 

upcoming match

Also advancing was 152-pounder Lucian Grow. Grow won by an 11-2 major decision in the quarterfinals, defeating Bryce Feia of Holdingford. Grow (27-8) will take on Paynesville's Justin Wendlandt. Wendlandt is 6-2 on the year. Not sure why he has only wrestled eight matches, but it is likely due to an inury, but not sure. Paynesville is a prennial strong program so it should be a good match Saturday as Grow tries to make his first appearance at state.

Lucian Grow stretches before his 11-2 

win at 152 pounds Friday.

Joe Bromenshenkel also won his first match of the night when he beat Koby Kunerth from Long Prairie-Grey Eagle. Bromenshenkel (9-24) lost his next match by fall and will try and battle through the loser's bracket Saturday.

Joe Bromenshenkel in action Friday.

Saturday is when it will get interesting, especially for Trattles and Grow - two very good wrestlers going at it in some tough brackets. Gusewelle, meanwhile, is the most feared wrestler at the section tournament (I eavesdropped on two kids talking about how fortunate they were that they didn't have to put their life on the line and wrestle him). Gusewelle now has a 35-2 record and his bracket is thin, mainly because nobody wants to wrestle him and either dropped down a weight class or jumped up a weight class in order to improve their chances. His toughest competition will be Andrew Moser of Paynesville. They wrestled close earlier this year with Gusewelle coming out on top. Moser is 27-4 on the season.

Gusewelle (second from left) watches action with 

assistant coach BJ Friedrichs (third from left)

Action starts Saturday at noon and will run until about 9 p.m. 

Full results will be in this week's 

Sauk Centre Herald.

Check back on the Streeter Sports Blog to see who advanced to state!

Rude awakening

by Bryan Zollman

For the second straight game the Sauk Centre girls basketball team struggled mightily on offense, and for the second straight game it cost them a victory.

The Streeters lost in the West Central Conference North-South title game Tonight in Sauk Centre 45-29 to south champion Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City.

Sauk once again got off to a slow start as ACGC went on a 10-0 run after Sauk's Kali Peschel scored the opening bucket. The Streeters never got back in it. The closest they came was within eight points after Kourtney Nelson and Shelby Deters both made buckets.

While the offense struggled, so did the defense at times. ACGC had plenty of good looks at the basket. There were several times where it appeared Sauk defenders got caught out of position. Pure and simple, the defensive intensity that has been as much a hallmark of this team as the explosive offense, just wasn't evident tonight.

Down the stretch the Streeters were forced to rely on the three-pointer. They haven't had to play from behind all year and tonight proved how important it is for them to get out of the gates with a solid start. When they have fallen behind in the past two games they have been forced to shoot from outside. Both times opposing defenses have inflated their perimeter defense, forcing the Streeters to launch bombs from way beyond the arc. And for two straight games the Streeters have been ice cold form three-point range.

It appears it will take more of a presence in the paint for the Streeters to be successful down the stretch here in the playoffs, which start next Saturday.

The fact that the Streeters are getting a first round bye could pay dividends as well. They will have nine days before their next game. That's nine days to regroup after two tough losses. Nine days to find the groove that made them the top Class AA team in the state.

Final Score
ACGC           28   17  -  45
Sauk Centre   12   17  -  29

Season record: 23-2
Up next: sub-section semifinals on Saturday, March 6 at 6 p.m. vs. Melrose/Holdingford winner

Latest rankings has NL-S on top

The latest ranking has New London-Spicer ranked No.1 in Class AA igirls basketball with Sauk Centre dropping to No. 2. Yet, Sauk Centre was given the No. 1 seed in the sub-sections and the Wildcats No. 2.

What does this all mean? I think it classifies more of a 1A and 1B ranking. Both teams have nearly identical records, both teams have beaten each other by about the same margin and both teams are really, really good.

It's a shame both squads are locked in the same sub-section and one of them will be ousted, more than likely by the other.

But it will make for a great match up in the rubber match (if both teams reach the sub-section finals).

Then, and only then, will we know who truly is the better team.

-BZ

Correction: The Girls Basketball Section title game is Friday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. @ St. Cloud State University!

Wear it, Wave it, Whatever it!

The Streeter Spirit Sports Hanky: It brings out the outlaw in you.