The Annandale-Maple Lake wrestling team rattled off two more wins and claimed a third-place tournament finish in two outings last week.
On Friday, Jan. 19, the Lightning travelled to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted where they dispatched Rockford and HL-W-W to go 2-0 on the night.
ANML returned to HL-W-W on Saturday, Jan. 20 to compete in its second straight Saturday individual tournament. Despite having three weights empty, the Lightning finished in third place.
ANML 51, Rockford 12
The Lightning easily dispatched Rockford, a team that is still rebuilding, setting up a battle with HLWW.
ANML 30, HL-W-W 24
HL-W-W came to wrestle and “pushed us to the limit,” ANML coach Ben Young said, but once again the Lightning outlasted them, mainly because of their team depth.
“We have beaten many teams by a narrow margin because they have solid kids, but usually other teams have one or two weights where they struggle to fill with a 100% varsity ready wrestler. Against HL-W-W, we picked up huge wins by two reserves, Calen Hardin and A.J. Bogatzki, and that says something about our team. Everyone wrestled hard and hats off to a HL-W-W team that really brought it in the home gym,” Coach Youngs said.
In dual meets, the Lightning are now 21-1, and when New London-Spicer comes to Annandale on Thursday night, Jan. 25 for senior/parent/youth night, it is sure to be a knock-down-drag-out battle for the Wright County Conference title, Youngs said.