Vikings send four wrestlers to state
Published 11:40 pm Saturday, February 26, 2011
Hayfield's Tyler Nelson puts Kenyon-Wanamingo's Derek Melhouse on his back during the 171-pound championship of Section 1A Saturday at Rochester's Civic Center. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
ROCHESTER — The Hayfield wrestling team took care of business at the Section 1A meet in Mayo Civic Center Saturday.
The Vikings sent four wrestlers to state and two more just missed trips as they took third.
Mason Moreno, a130 pound freshman, and Myles Moreno, a 145 pound senior, each earned their second career trips to state and Tyler Nelson, a 171-pound senior, and Blake Arndt, a 215-pound senior, earned their first career trips to state.
Both Nelson and Arndt won section titles as they beat wrestlers who had beaten them recently.
Arndt, who has lost one match all year beat Cole Nelson of Zumbrota/Mazeppa 5-0 in the finals after losing 4-2 in overtime to Nelson earlier this season.
Arndt picked up a takedown in the first and third period to seal the win.
Hayfield's Blake Arndt is congratulated by Zumbrota-Mazeppa's Cole Nelson after Arndt defeated Nelson for the 215-pound title in the Section 1A tournament Saturday at the Rochester Mayo Civic Center. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
“I worked my butt of since (losing to him),” Arndt said. “I owe a lot to my coach Mark Voyce and my practice partners Zach Davis, Jake Seimers and Tyler Nelson. They pushed and pushed and it finally prevailed for us.”
Arndt made sure to stay focused once he got out to his big lead, since Nelson took him down twice in the last matchup.
“I was very cautious because he’s very dangerous with his feet,” Ardnt said.
Arndt bounced back from a knee injury and an illness that kept him out for three weeks earlier this season.
“It was horrible and I had quite a bit of doubts with my knee,” he said. “I took nothing for granted (at sections) and tried to stay focused and do the best I could.”
Tyler Nelson won in much more dramatic fashion for Hayfield as he escaped with four seconds left to pull off a 9-8 victory over Derek Melhouse of Kenyon/Wanamingo in the 171 finals.
Nelson said the last time Melhouse beat him, he used the headlock and he was looking for it again, but Nelson was able to scoot out as time was running out.
“That’s what I practice all the time is that roll and its worked for me pretty well (to escape),” Nelson said. “It’s unbelievable and it just feels weird saying I’m going to state. It feels good.”
For Mason Moreno, the roles were reversed as he lost to Jordan Theede of Lewiston/Altura/Rushford/Peterson 2-1 after beating him last week.
Moreno won all of his first three matches by at least 10 points but he allowed a reversal to Theede with 1:35 left in the match and after escaping with 35 seconds left, he missed on a couple of takedown chances as time ran out.
“He came out tough, I’ll give him that. He’s pretty good and there wasn’t much I could do (at the end),” Moreno said.
Myles Moreno got to state by winning a ‘true’ second match 6-2 over Cody Shletty of Triton. Moreno beat Tucker Speltz of L/A/R/P 4-2 and pinned Tyler Breuer of Goodhue in the first period on his way to his last match.
Moreno’s only loss was a 7-6 shortcoming to eventual section champ Grant Hegge of Southland in the semifinals.
Hayfield senior Jake Siemers took third at 189 after he lost 3-1 in OT to Juan Gomez of Chatfield in the semifinals and Zach Davis, a senior, took third at heavyweight for Hayfield.
