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Three Kenmare wrestlers qualify for state

Three Kenmare wrestlers are moving on to state competition after placing in the Region 3 tournament held in Kenmare on Saturday.

2/17/15 (Tue)

 In one of the most exciting matches of the Region 3 Wrestling Tournament, Kenmare’s Ty Jesz, at 160 pounds, wrestles Des Lacs/Burlington’s Jordan Evanoff in the third-place match. Jesz went on to defeat Evanoff in a 6-3 decision. Robin James photo

By Marvin Baker

Three Kenmare wrestlers are moving on to state competition after placing in the Region 3 tournament held in Kenmare on Saturday.

Brandon Burtch, 120 pounds, Ty Jesz, 160 pounds and Alex Giese, 170 pounds, all qualified with Giese placing second and Jesz and Burtch both placing third in their respective weight classes.

“Alex had a tough one in the final, but it went really well,” said Kenmare head coach Danny Mogren. “Ty stepped up and wrestled well. He started kind of iffy, but he really stepped up when he needed it most.”

Burtch, who has bounced around between 120 and 126 this season, went to regionals at 120 and it paid off.

He pinned Ethan Myers of Mondak in one minute, lost 6-2 to Aaron Dean of Velva, earned a technical fall over Darrion Wilson of Northern Lights and pinned Walter Winkler of Des Lacs/Burlington in 2:02 in the third-place match.

Jesz had an interesting day at the tournament and drew a large crowd in the third-place match.

He started out with Jordan Evanoff of Des Lacs/Burlington pinning him in 5:09, got a first-round bye in the consolation round, pinned Tibbs Moore of Stanley in 4:54, then came back to beat Evanoff 6-3 in the third-place match.

Mogren said the match was intense and he noticed a larger crowd behind his bench than he had seen at most duals.

He said the match was tied at 1-1 with just 20 seconds remaining, when both wrestlers kicked it into high gear with Jesz picking up five points as the seconds ticked off the clock.

Giese, who has been a strong wrestler all season, opened the tournament with a bye, pinned Robert Wible of Velva in 3:45, then lost in the championship to Zeb Demaray of New Town in a pin at 6:19.

Mogren was pleased with the state qualifiers but gave accolades to several other Honker wrestlers, who he said performed well through the tournament.

Tyler Burtch, Lathan Stroklund, Michael Schlosser and Trenton Kohler all picked up pins during the tournament and although wrestling newcomer Brenitt Bossingham didn’t win a match, Mogren said he wrestled well given that he hadn’t been on the team in the past and went into the tournament having had only nine practice sessions.

As a team, Kenmare finished sixth of 10 teams competing with 76.5 points. Minot Ryan won the tournament followed by Velva, Rugby, DLB and Stanley.

Northern Lights, New Town, Mondak and Tioga finished behind the Honkers.

“It didn’t always go as planned, but yes, everyone performed well,” Mogren said. “And we had a very good crowd. That’s the nice thing about wrestling at home, there’s extra motivation there.”

Mogren said he expected Minot Ryan and Velva to be at the top of the list, but was certainly pleased with his team’s showing, receiving the highest score of the season.

Giese, Jesz and Branden Burtch leave for the state tournament today and will be competing in the Fargodome on Saturday... Read EVERY WORD on EVERY PAGE of The Kenmare News by subscribing--online or in print!