On Friday, January 20th the Jags headed west to Ida Grove for the two day 27 team slugfest called the Herb Irgens Invitational. One Jaguar, Caelan Oakes-Sudhish was the lone placewinner finishing in 4th place. Seven wrestlers entered the tournament as a few injuries and lack of experience kept a few of the regulars in the line up at home. The Jags wrestled decently Friday night as five out the seven advanced to Saturday's competition. In order to stay alive you needed to win two matches by either a bye and a win or two wins on the front side. Oakes and sophomore Heavyweight Ryan Wicklein finished on the front side. Wicklein received a bye then upset his Lawton-Bronson opponent by sticking a power half on him to place him in the Saturday morning quarterfinals. Sophomore 113 lbs Taelynn Slawson, sophomore 132 lbs Caleb Will, and 220 lbs Nate Graves won their matches in the consolation side of the bracket for the chance to compete Saturday. Unfortunately, 145 lbs Kyle Johnson and 170 lbs John Klingson were eliminated Friday night. 

Will and Graves had some nice backside match wins Friday night. Graves had to win three matches on the backside of his bracket and looked solid as well as Will. Saturday morning was a different story as all of the boys lost their first match. Slawson and Will got out of position and were caught on their backs, Wicklein lost some upper body battles and Graves lost a tough bout against his Woodbury Central opponent. 

Saturday was frustrating. Our conditioning wasn't there, having several days off because of weather didn't help our guys, we looked tired and sluggish. We have to get back in the room to build back our stamina.  

Final Team Standings:

1 Don Bosco 271.0

2 Sergeant Bluff-Luton 216.5

3 Carroll 171.0

4 Tonganoxie 155.5

5 West Hancock, Britt 144.0

6 Jesup 123.0

7 Okoboji 91.5

8 Solon 82.5

9 Pocahontas Area 82.0

10 West Lyon 76.0

11 Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire 73.0

12 Woodbury Central 69.0

13 Kingsley-Piersen 66.0

14 Sioux Center 60.5

15 Sibley-Ocheyedan 50.0

16 Akron-Westfield 48.0

17 Western Christian 44.0

18 East Sac County 38.0

19 OA-BCIG 37.0

20 Southeast Valley 29.0

21 Lawton-Bronson 26.0

21 Ridge View 26.0

23 Audubon 14.0

23 Cherokee, Washington 14.0

25 Woodbine 5.0