BHVPP Raiders place second in Class A
by Coach Michael Arvidson
The 2021 season came to an end this past Saturday at STMA High School. It wasn’t the usual “X”, but at least the competition was held. BHVPP had put an incredible run together to get to this point and were facing the #2 seed Jackson County Central Huskies in the Semifinals. We knew it was going to be tough, but just like the State Quarterfinal, kept it close enough for the big guys to pull it out.
JCC started strong with a pin from their state champion at 106. Their third-place finisher added a decision against David Revering at 113 before Deagen Captain put the Raiders on the board with a decision of his own.
Holden Truax entered the line-up against their third-place finisher and battled before giving up the fall. The next two weights, 132 and 138, were going to be key matches in the outcome of the dual and Aiden Larson did his job bumping up and not getting pinned. The technical fall played a huge role later in the dual.
Reese Thompson went up to 138 and took the swing match with a third-period takedown and dominant ride out for the 3–2 decision.
The Huskies put up six against Justin Koehn at 145 and it was 26–6 halfway through the dual.
JCC had their defending state champion waiting at 152, but like they have done all season, he wrestled up to strengthen their team, so Brock Peterson got the other guy. Brock took advantage of his .500 opponent and glued him to the mat sparking the Raiders’ hope. The champ went to 160 and took care of business. However, the pin they were hoping for never happened as Mason Schroeder left it all on the mat and barely gave him the major decision. Another important match as it was less than a pin.
Hunter Dean had a battle on his hands at 170 and like he has done so many times before, he turned a close match into a pin as he flurried into a headlock to seal his opponent’s fate late in the third period to bring the dual to 30–18 and kept the dream alive.
The glimmer of hope faded at 182 when Tyler Eggert lost a tight match by a pin.
Three weights to go and down 36–18, the path to victory was simple. Pinout and win. It was highly unlikely as the Huskies still had one horse left and were able to get the match-up they wanted to give them the best route to victory. They slid their 6th place finisher up giving Gideon Ervasti at 195 an alternate that he pinned in twenty seconds. . .