Wrestling: Fifth-place Irish 10 points out of second at Eastview Invite

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The Rosemount wrestling team didn’t have to go far for its two meets last week.

With a Lake Conference dual and individual tournament on the schedule, the Irish just had to head over to Eastview. The Lightning played host to both events.

The first visit didn’t go so well for the Irish, so they made up for it a day later.

Rosemount lost 40-21 last Friday in a Lake Conference dual against Eastview. A day later, the Irish placed fifth out of 12 teams in the Eastview Invitational with 142.50 points.

Eastview won the met with 206.50. Rosemount was just 10 points out of second place. Scott West was runner-up with 152.50 points.

As usual, the Irish were dealing with the reality of being shorthanded.

“To finish fifth with just nine scoring wrestlers out of 14 is pretty good,” Rosemount coach Brett Larson said. “A couple more wins here and there and we were up in that second or third range. It was a pretty good day. We had some matches early we didn’t win that we thought we could have. But we wrestled up to our capability for the most part.”

Scott West featured three individual champions, and the Irish were right in the mix with two individual champions.

Steve Levine and Garrett Bothun each won their weight classes at 112 and 145 pounds, respectively.

“Steve Levine won his second tournament and really looked good,” Larson said. “Garrett Bothun looked good and has really been our steadiest wrestler all year. They were both very dominating in all three matches.”

At 189 pounds, Tyler Sandoz finished second. Sandoz lost in the finals to Michael Kroells from Scott West, who is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A at 189 pounds.

Adam Jackson was the perfect example of how Rosemount improved on the second trip to Eastview. After losing to Nick Dodd from Eastview on Friday, Jackson came back a day later and beat Dodd 3-0 for third place at 140 pounds.

“To beat the same wrestler the next day, that’s quite a turnaround,” Larson said. “It’s an impressive highlight for him, for sure.”

Josh Francois also placed third for Rosemount.

Tony Marthaler was fourth at 135 pounds. Paul Domeier was fifth at 119 pounds.

Danny Rosa and Bryce Wilberding each placed sixth.

Rosa earned Rosemount’s first points in the conference dual against Eastview.

Sandoz, Levine, Domeier and Bothun also earned match wins.

“It was a typical dual for us,” Larson said. “We wrestled well. We’re just shorthanded. We had a couple of close matches that didn’t go our way. They just have more depth in the 14 weights than we do.”

Tags: sports, rosemount, irish, minnesota, wrestling, prep