Worthington Daily Globe Mitchell victorious at Open in 184-pound division
Worthington Daily Globe
Lucas Knutson
Published Monday, January 23, 2006
The 15th annual Worthington Wrestling Open attracted about 130 participants from 13 schools, and was deemed a success by tournament coordinators, as well as all the participants involved.
“The tournament ran very smoothly,” event director Kirk Feit said. “There was good wrestling involving quality kids. There was a lot of exciting action out there today.”
Sponsored by the Worthington Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with the Park and Rec Committee, the tournament couldn’t have been possible without all the help from the community.
“We certainly want to thank all of the volunteers that put in the time and effort to put this thing on,” Minnesota West head coach Bob Purcell said. “The community definitely profited from it.”
Purcell also noted that Joel Krekelberg deserves a lot of credit for all of his help in the training and medical attention given to the wrestlers throughout the day.
As for the wrestling action itself, the competition was keen in all of the weight classes.
“Each weight class was solid from top to bottom,” Purcell said. “Every match was intense, and there were no weak matches.”
Daniel Prodder (Prater) (141-lbs.) of Colby Community College took home the Outstanding Wrestler award to highlight a fine day of competition.Minnesota West had two wrestlers turn in terrific performances, as Dallas Mitchell (184) and T.J. Scheidecker (197) each reached the finals in their respective weight divisions.
Mitchell, ranked No. 1 in the country, won all four of his matches to improve to 22-1 on the season, and win the 2006 Open.
Falling to Mitchell were Ted Satzer (Ridgewater), Bobby Dennis (Colby), Beau Severtson (unattached) and Matt Sime (Dakota County).
Meanwhile, Scheidecker lost by two points in the championship match in overtime. However, he was pleased with how he performed on the day.
“I thought I wrestled pretty well today,” he said. “The guy who beat me in the finals was the best I had faced all day.”
“I was pretty happy with the way our team performed today,” Purcell said. “We wrestled tough against some very quality kids from very quality programs.”
The Bluejays, who had lost a tough one-point (22-21) match to Itasca the night before, will look to get back on track when they host Dakota Wesleyan on Wednesday.
“Hopefully, we can bounce back and get a win this week,” Scheidecker said. “We’ll be ready.”
