Matmen claim two wins

It was a busy week for the Glencoe-Silver Lake/Lester Prairie wrestling team as the Panthers went 2-1 in a quadrangular meet at Sibley East on Thursday, Dec. 6, before placing 11th at a tournament in Chanhassen two days later.
GSL/LP defeated its hosts 39-30 at the Sibley East quad, and also claimed a 45-24 defeat of Saint Clair/Mankato Loyola. The wins sandwiched a 53-15 loss to Delano.
The Wolverines took an 18-0 lead before Carter Ruschmeier earned a 19-4 technical fall at 126 pounds and Sawyer Varpness won by fall at 132 to pull the Panthers to within 18-11.
Sibley East won the next two matches to go up 24-11 before GSL/LP won the next six matches to go ahead 39-24 and clinch the victory before the Wolverines took a forfeit win at 285 in the finale.
Individual statistics were not available for the Saint Clair/Loyola win. Against Delano, Varpness and Rae won by fall, while Butcher claimed a 5-1 decision to account for GSL/LP’s 15 points.
Claiming victories during the Panthers’ six match streak were: Joey Barrett (15-6) at 152, Keegan Lemke (fall :40) at 160, Brent Lipke (fall 4:56), Cody Rae (10-4) at 182, Riley Butcher (6-2) at 195 and Zach Wanous (fall 1:48) at 220.
After a day to rest up on Friday, the Panthers headed up Highway 212 to take part in the Ethan Herman Memorial Tournament at Chanhassen High School. GSL/LP amassed 56 points to take 11th out of 15 teams; Owatonna was first with 210.
Panther wrestlers earned four fourth-place individual finishes and one fifth-place individual result.
Earning fourth-place results were Ruschmeier (126), Zachary Voelz (145), Lemke (160) and Rae (170).
Jace Cacka placed fifth at 120 by winning his final match of the day, 10-9, over Minnetonka’s Alex Towey.
The Panthers were back home for a dual meet against BOLD on Tuesday night, after the Chronicle went to press. On Friday, GSL/LP will host a tournament beginning at 5 p.m. in the purple gym at GSL High School.