The Wolverine wrestling team starts off the New Year on a roll. Because of cancellations due to weather, the first competition didn’t take place until Tuesday night in Tarkio, MO. They wrestled CB St. Albert, SWI, and Tarkio. The rust showed in the first dual as we lost to St. Albert 18-55. Chris Formhals had the match of the dual with an 11-10 double overtime victory. In the second dual of the evening East Mills avenged a loss against SWI (Sidney/FM) with a 41-39 victory. In the dual, Travis Rolfe came from behind and won the dual with a second period pin. In the final dual of the night, East Mills edged Tarkio 45-36. The Wolverines had six pins in the dual coming from Kyle Miller, Chris Formhals, Johnathon Miller, Royce Stortenbecker, Chris Pittmon, and Brandon Visocky. Visocky’s pin sealed the lead and the victory.

Next on the schedule for the Wolverines was a home quad with Elk Horn/Kimballton/Exira, Clarinda Academy, and Red Oak. In the first dual against EHKE, the Wolverines jumped out to a 33-6 lead with wins from Brandon Visocky, Tanner Formhals, Kyle Miller, Chris Formhals, Darryk Leu, and Johnathon Miller. Then the Spartans stormed back and took a 34-33 lead with one match remaining. In a tied 2-2 match in the middle of the third period Chris Pittmon came up big for the Wolverines with a pin and sealed the 39-34 victory. This makes it official; East Mills is on a streak winning their third straight dual. In the second dual of the night, it once again came down to Chris’ match as it was virtually tied 36-36. Pittmon earned a first period pin to seal the victory against Clarinda Academy 42-36. In the final dual of the night, the four-dual winning streak came to an end as Red Oak beat East Mills 18-63. Brandon Visocky had the match of the dual for the Wolverines pinning his heavyweight opponent in 14 seconds.

To finish off the week East Mills participated in the Tiger Duals at Griswold. In the six team dual competition, the Wolverines went 2-3 on the day. In the duals East Mills lost to Griswold 40-42, beat Elk Horn/Kimballton/Exira 54-30, lost to Tri-Center 12-67, lost to Corning 30-54, and beat Treynor 47-36. Chris Formhals lead the Wolverines going 5-0 with three pins and making the All-Tournament team. Going 4-1 and almost making the ATT were Kyle Miller, Johnathon Miller, Royce Stortenbecker, and Brandon Visocky. Darryk Leu had three wins for the Wolverines while Tanner Formhals, Caleb Barney, and Travis Rolfe each had two victories. Jordan Pittmon also added a victory for East Mills as they were 31-17 on the day. If I had to pick the top three matches of the day, I would say Brandon Visocky pinning his Treynor opponent, whom he was 0-3 against over the last two seasons against was the best match. The second best match of the day was Caleb Barney against his EHKE opponent. The score was tied entering the third frame, Caleb almost gives up a pin, but reverses his opponent and wins the dual with a pin of his own. And the third was Kyle Miller’s match against his Tri-Center opponent. Kyle had a 6-5 lead entering the third period and finished the match with a pin.

At this point in the season we have an 8-13 dual record and we are 129-118 in individual matches with 57 pins. We have nine duals left and two tournaments before Sectionals. Our motto this season has been “finish, finish, finish…” hopefully we do just that and put an exclamation point on the end of this season.

Look for the Wolverines to be in action:

Jan 19 @ Clarinda Academy

Jan 22-23 @ Corning

Jan 26 @ Griswold

Jan 28 @ Neola, Tri-Center

Jan 30 @ Audubon

Feb 2 @ EMHS

Feb 6 @ Riverside (Sectionals)