Faribault Wrestlers Get Their Rematch

Faribault Falcon head coach Jesse Armbruster told KDHL after their 47-11 win over Northfield on Thursday night his team wanted a rematch with Owatonna.

That's exactly what they will get.

The No. 3 seed Faribault and No. 2 seed Owatonna Huskies will wrestle in the Section 1 Class 3A semifinals at the Rochester Mayo Civic Center at 1PM Saturday. We will carry the match on Power 96 Radio 95.9FM with coverage starting about 1:45PM if everything is on time.

Owatonna cruised by Rochester Mayo 54-13 on Thursday night.

On the other side of the bracket, top seed Farmington shut out Austin 74-0 after the Packers defeated Rochester Century 54-21 to advance to go up against the Tigers. Rochester John Marshall downed Lakeville South in the other quarterfinal round match 41-31.

Faribault had a sluggish start to their match. Armbruster said some of it may have been his wrestlers not keeping their bodies hydrated so their energy level would be up.

At 106, Faribault eighth-grader Riley Stoltz picked up his 23rd win of the season with a 7-2 win over seventh-grader Kevin Garcias Rosas. I'm pretty sure Armbruster was hoping for some extra points there.

At 113, Northfield's only current state-ranked wrestler, eighth-grader Drew Woodley, bumped up from 106, to defeat eighth-grader Josh Oathoudt with a technical fall to score Northfield's only bonus points of the night. Northfield led 5-3, and it would be their only lead of the night.

Junior Ren Ross got his 17th win of the year at 120 and sophomore Cain Van Ryn won a hard-fought match at 126 before Northfield's eighth-grader Ethan Johnson tallied a 10-3 win over junior Austin Underdahl to make the score Faribault 9, Northfield 8.

Senior Tony Avila pinned his opponent at 138 pounds in 2:55 to put some distance between the Falcons and Raiders. Eighth-grader Charlie Chambers picked up his 15th win of the season at 145 by pinning a junior in 2:42.

At 152, Faribault sophomore Austin Rendler scored a point literally at the last tick of the clock in the third period to tie the match and send it into overtime. Rendler then scored a takedown in overtime to win 9-7 over Raider senior Travis White.

Falcon senior Ryan Mullenex is rated third in the state in Class 3A at 160 pounds and had a tech fall against his opponent to secure his 33rd win of the season. At that point, Faribault was ahead 29-8.

Senior Isaac VanThomme picked up his 24th win of the season in exciting fashion when he scored an overtime win over Northfield junior John Vitito at 170 pounds.

The Raiders would manage their third win of the match at 182 pounds when senior Taz'Ante Epps defeated  freshman Josh Heyda 4-1. It was Epps' 20th victory of the season.

Class 3A state-ranked Falcon Junior Felipe Ramirez pinned his opponent in exactly three minutes for his 30th win this season.

At 220, junior Dillon McEachran of Faribault eked out a 2-0 win over freshman Jose Garcia Rosas.

The match ended with Falcon senior Edwin Santiago scoring the quickest pin of the night in :63 seconds. With the win, Santiago is 26-10 this season.

Armbruster told KDHL after the match when the Falcons wrestled Owatonna just last week his team appeared to wrestle not to lose instead of being the aggressors. He hopes that changes Saturday and said his team will have three wrestlers in the lineup that were not there when they wrestled the Huskies previously.

The Faribault head coach believes his team will be able to compete much better Saturday and says if the Falcons wrestle the way they are capable then they could pull off a upset.

Our State Farm Agents Tony Langerud and Jason Krohn Falcons of the match were Avila and Rendler.