Gopher Wrestling on Rebound

Chatfield wrestling was the 2013-2014 Class A state wrestling champion (27-1). A year ago (2015-2016), with graduations and defections, they precipitously fell to 3-15. An up after a down is always a good story. Travis Bartels has the young, two-senior, three-junior, Gophers on a bit of a resurgence. Class A Lean and Mean Dover-Eyota was the latest TRC club to find out. The Gophers lost the first two matches, but both only by decision (including Alex Goetzinger falling 7-3 to #2 in Class A Taylor DeFrang). Seventh graders Grady Schott (120) and Campbell Berg (126) then notched pins to put Chatfield ahead 12-6. A major decision loss was then followed by two wins; Nathan Goldsmith (138) pin and Jake Mandt (145) forfeit. The Gophers led 24-10 after seven weights. The Eagles closed to down 24-23 with wins at 152, 160, and 172. Alex Pagel (182 > pin) and Isaiah Froese (195 > 6-0 decision) answered the surge to put the Gophers up 33-23. D-E’s top-ranked Reid Seelhammer got a pin at 220. Chatfield’s Alex Coe than clinched the match (39-29) with a pin at heavyweight. Each team won seven matches. Six of Chatfield’s wins were six-pointers. D-E had just two six-pointers. The Gophers are now 5-1 in the TRC, 6-3 overall (double the wins of last year) ahead of a date with unblemished PEM (5-0, 8-0).