Still hungry on Owatonna

MEDFORD — The Medford Tigers were so close to a state wrestling title last season that they could taste it.

In last year’s Class A State semifinals, eventual state champion Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg defeated the Tigers 33-26. Medford would end the season with a 29-24 win over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City for the third place.

The Tigers lost Austin Peters (119 pounds), Jake Elzen (160), Calab Svenby (171), Steve Shulz (215), Thomas Schroht (285) and state champion Tyler Yule (152) off last year’s team. Although Medford lost six starters from last year’s Section 2A champs, the cupboard is far from bare. In fact, three state runners-up are back: senior Zach Keller (103), sophomore Curt Maas (125) and senior Zach Kanzenbach (140). Also back are seniors Cole Kavitz, Reid Balzer and Brad Keller, who missed most of last year with an injury.

“They spent a lot of time both in camps and on the mat in the summer,” said Medford coach Dennis Whitman. “The senior group spent more time on the mat in the summer than any group we have had.

“As soon as the football season ended, they were in the wrestling room; they didn’t take a break.”

Almost half of Medford’s roster should be ranked in the top 5 at their weight when the rankings come out on Friday. Eight wrestlers have walked onto the mat at the Class A State Wrestling Tournament. None of those eight left the Xcel Energy Center satisfied last March.

“This year we have a lot of guys that wrestled at the state tournament and came up short,” Whitman said. “There might be a little bit of hunger there. They want to take the next step.”

For the Tigers to make back-to-back trips to St. Paul, Medford will need a couple of upper weights wrestlers to hold onto leads. Whitman said last year’s success convinced some athletes buy their first pairs of wrestling shoes. Now, the newcomers need to hang in there and survive the grueling preseason practices.

“The older you get the tougher wrestling is to pick up,” Whitman said. “The kids that have the experience and a couple of years in the wrestling room have an advantage.

“It is also a sport where if you put your time in and work hard, it doesn’t matter when you get started. You will have success.”

Even if Medford can’t find some help in the 215-pound and 285-pound weight classes, Brad Keller said the Tigers will still be dominant.

“We want to be good every year,” Keller said. “We might need to find a couple of kids on top, but we are going to be strong at the lower and middle weights. We know if we work hard, we will be strong.”

Whitman filled Tigers’ schedule with a lot of strong wrestling programs. Hutchinson, Eastview and Delano will wrestle at Medford High School. Class A wrestling powers Kenyon-Wanamingo and Madelia-Truman will also make appearances in Medford. Traditional Gopher Conference power United South Central travels to Medford on Dec. 10 for an early season conference showdown.

“I think it’s going to be a situation this year where we’ll have a bunch of good kids,” Whitman said. “The question will be if we have enough of them to have a solid dual team?”

One thing is for sure wrestlers like Kavitz expect to be back at Xcel Energy Center in March.

“We have the same expectations. We have a lot of good kids and solid core coming back.”

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