Eagles host Dave Arens Classic

Kennedy (8-4) welcomed a perennially strong field to the school for the annual Dave Arens Classic on Saturday.

Fifth-ranked Hastings swept its way to the championship downing Eagan 80-0 in the final after blanking Champlin Park 81-0 in the quarterfinal and beat Kennedy 75-6 in the semifinal.

The Eagles opened with a 71-6 win over Minneapolis Roosevelt and lost to Centennial 45-18 in the third-place match.

Kennedy’s Jalen Robbs scored a pin at 132 points for the lone team points against Hastings. He went 3-0 on the day to improve to 16-2 on the season.

JV matches were sprinkled among the varsity team matches throughout the day. 

Kennedy continues to grow its girls program which was up to five members earlier this season. Kelsey Cruz Rojas was among those in action during JV bouts on Saturday. She was locked into an intense match against Hastings Lauren Whitfield eventually coming out on the losing end of a 9-7 decision.

Building on success

Kennedy started the season with upwards of 53 wrestlers registered for practice. Despite losing some kids from the program, coach Chuck Vavrosky sees consistent improvement manifesting as competitive bouts and team-scoring duals as of late. 

In reference to heavyweight Jacob Hopkins competing against Burnsville’s Svonte Miller, losing an 8-2 decision, Vavrosky likes the progress made to battle on the mat during a Jan. 13 dual at Burnsville High School.

“He learned to fight a little bit just like our whole team which is awesome,” Vavrosky said of Hopkins match. Kennedy kept both matches against the Blaze and Edina closer than the head coach thought they would be coming in. “We thought Edina and Burnsville would crush us. We put 36 points on the board and lost by one and put 34 points on the board against the other team with two guys out of the lineup.

“We’re learning and they are growing fast and that’s fun to watch,” Vavrosky said on Saturday morning, pointing to the heart of the order for solid matches including Robbs (132), Max Carlson (120), Andres Franco (106) and state-entrant Zach Greenhouse (126). Add in eighth-grader Torque Carlson at 113 pounds and the lineup is coming together nicely. “Torque lost to a very good wrestler in overtime and kept his match against Burnsville to a major decision which saved us two team points. He’s going out and competing and has a great name for a wrestler,” Vavrosky said. “Every day he comes to practice works hard to bust his butt and it’s starting to show. A year ago he was up here doing the same thing, you could tell how green he was which held him back because he wasn’t very successful. He was just competing and now he’s starting to get some moves mixed in there and winning some matches.”

Greenhouse has come on after a slow start to the season.

Among the four girls on the team, two are ranked fifth in state including juniors Stephanie Duran (107) and Cruz Rojas (145).

“They mix in with the boys’ practice and aren’t afraid to go out and compete against the guys,” Vavrosky said. “They are all very, very hard workers.”

Assistant coach Natalie Fisher is in charge of the group which will compete in a second all-girl tournament coming up at Pine Island on Feb. 4.

Kennedy will host the single-elimination Tri-Metro Conference Championships at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8. The individual tournament will feature all of the teams in the conference meeting to determine conference champions at Kennedy High School.

The Section 5AA team meet will be at Totino-Grace Feb. 18 with the individual meet at Kennedy High School on Feb. 25.

Kennedy found itself off to a 3-2 start in team duals so far in 2023 heading into the Dave Arens Classic on Jan. 21 and a dual against St. Agnes the night before on the Kennedy High School mats.

The Eagles opened the new year with a 45-30 win over Spectrum on Jan. 5. 

The evening began against Spectrum with Kennedy’s Torque Carlson losing an 11-9 decision at 106 pounds to Cooper Reemts. 

Andres Franco started a run of five consecutive pins for the Eagles. Franco’s 113-pound match ended in 1:37 followed by Carlson (120) in 3:46; Greenhouse won in a team-quickest fall of 48 seconds; Robbs (132) was next with a fall in 1:43 and Henry Hiltner (138) won in 3:45.

Spectrum won the next three matches at 145, 152 and 160 pounds before Tristan Athey’s pin at 170 pounds in 1:15 to take a 36-21 lead.

Wyatt Beaty was pinned at 182 pounds but Bellagio Bradley lost a 10-7 decision at 195 pounds to narrow the Eagles’ lead to 34-30 with two matches left.

It took Anthony Kugmeh (220) 1:45 to secure the pin and win the dual. Jacob Hopkins added a 5-2 decision win at 285 pounds to close out the dual.

Next up was a Tri-Metro Conference triangular at Brooklyn Center on Jan. 12. 

Kennedy opened with a 48-30 win over host Brooklyn Center-Concordia Academy before topping Minneapolis Edison with a 54-28 loss.

Kennedy 126-pound State-entrant Greenhouse opened the dual against BCCA with a fall at 2:54 after Kennedy won three opening matches by forfeit and Robbs won at 132 by forfeit.

At 145 pounds Hiltner won by fall at 3:13 as BCCA won the next four consecutive matches. Philip Phan (152) and Athey (170) lost decisions while Damion McDearmon (160) and Ja’Shaun Bostic (182) lost by fall. Kennedy’s Kugmeh (195) and Tristian Haecherl (220) won by fall before BCCA heavyweight pinned Kennedy’s Hopkins in 1:38 to win the final bout of the match.

The dual against Edison began well for Kennedy as they opened a 30-6 lead through six matches. Franco won by fall in 1:19 at 113 pounds while Vincent Sheild-Gore won at 138 pounds by fall in 1:27.

Damion McDearmon (160) and Bostic (182) won by falls in the opening period. Edison’s Eli Jons pinned Athey (170) in 4:50 and Lamar Sloan scored a 27-second pin against Kugmeh at 195 pounds.

Kennedy lost both duals in a triangular at Burnsville High School on Jan. 17 coming up short against Edina 54-24 then Burnsville 37-36.

Kennedy built an 18-6 lead through four bouts thanks to first-period pins from Franco (113), Carlson (120) and Greenhouse (126). Torque Carlson lost by fall at 106 pounds to Edina’s Anthony Nichols. 

Edina took control of the match thanks to a string of five wins, three by fall. The lone exceptions came at 145 pounds as Philip Phan lost a 1-0 decision to Owen Hipps and Athey lost a 9-6 decision to Sam Holman at 160.

Beaty (170) secured the last Eagles team points with a fall at 7:55 against Miguel Tapia.

Edina swept the final four matches by fall.

Against Burnsville, Franco opened with a 54-second fall at 106 while Torque Carlson (113) gave up a 14-0 major for four team points instead of six team points for the pin.

Max Carlson (120) started an Eagles run of five straight results with a fall at 1:40. Robbs (126) and Greenhouse (132) each scored close decisions, 4-3 and 4-2 to each add three points to the team total. Shield-Gore (138) and Phan (145) came through with pins to extend Kennedy’s lead to 30-4 with seven weights left. The Blaze won six of the matches and five by fall to pull off the one-point victory. Bostic’s pin at 1:17 of his 182-pound match broke up the Blaze run but that was it for Kennedy. Ricardo Moreno of Burnsville pinned Kugmeh in 3:35 at 195 pounds and Mambu Sonie pinned Kennedy’s Tristian Haecherl in 37 seconds of their 220-pound match to officially put the match out of reach for the Eagles.

Hopkins kept the final score close as he gave up an 8-2 decision against Syvonte Miller in the 285-pound match.

December

Kennedy closed out the month at the Bi-State Classic in LaCrosse, Wisconsin Dec. 29-30 with lots of competition in a crowded field.

Greenhouse went 4-3 at 126 pounds finishing with a 5-1 loss to Dylan Weigel of Belmont/Plattville in the consolation round seven. Greenhouse had one pin and three close decisions.

Torque Carlson (113) went 2-1 with an opening-round pin then an 18-5 major in the consolation round two before losing a 19-4 tech fall at 3:50 to end his tournament against Thai Yang of Wausau West.

Sheild-Gore went 2-2 at 132 with a 3-2 decision over Taylor Pickel of Ithaca/Westona in the consolation round after pinning Marshfield’s Keenan Landwehr in the championship first round.

Phan (145) went 2-3 opening with a pair of pins before losing by two pins and a scoreless decision.

In the girls’ side of the tournament, Kennedy had a pair of entrants including Duran (107) and Rojas (145). 

Duran went 2-1 with a pair of decision wins after opening with a 7-6 decision against her by Nora Lee of Holmen. Duran topped Leila Reid of South St. Paul 6-5 then Lauren Honken of Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson 7-3.

Rojas went 1-2 including a fall in 1:15 against Emily Anderson of West Salem/Bangor.

Kennedy shutout Columbia Heights 78-0 in a Tri-Metro Conference dual meet on Dec. 17.

The Eagles sent a split squad to the Trinity Invite and Hopkins’ Athena High School Invite on Dec. 17.

Greenhouse (126) placed fourth going 2-2 with a pin and major before falling to Ogilvie’s Deegan Birkaker in the third-place match 10-3.

Sheild-Gore (132) placed fifth with his second pin of the day – coming at 2:01 against Buffalo’s Gael Leon. 

Hiltner (138) placed sixth going 1-3 and Hopkins (285) won his fifth-place match against Roseville’s Louis Ebi-Ndie.

At Hopkins, Kennedy had three wrestlers compete with two finishing second in Carrillo (107) and Cruz Rojas (145). Melissa Sanchez Delgado (165) placed sixth. 

Carrillo Duran pinned her way to the final before losing to Simley’s Charlie Raymond by fall at 1:06. Cruz Rojas also pinned her way to the final before losing to Eastview’s Riley Myers by fall 3:29 in the final.