Thursday, Dec. 3, starts the new year of Bulldog wrestling. As these past few weeks have gone by, Paynesville has been getting ready to start the season.The Guillotine, a high school wrestling publication, currently has Paynesville ranked 12th in the state. Dassel-Cokato is ranked first as of Nov. 16, and Rocori is ranked eighth. Both teams are in the Bulldog’s section. Individually, Paynesville has one wrestler ranked. David Kerzman, a sophomore, is currently ranked second at 125 pounds.
This year’s team is comprised of two seniors and 11 underclassmen. Many of those 11 are juniors such as Chris Welle, Matt Brauchler, Josh Bork, etc. Josh Bork is a newcomer this year. After taking a few years off from wrestling he has come ready to compete. He is a valuable asset, since he is one of the few in the upper weights. Two other wrestlers to watch this year are seniors Karl Sanborn and Justin Mueller. Both are captains along with Chris Welle.
With a young team like the Bulldogs, Paynesville will have a lot of wrestlers preparing themselves for the upcoming year. For many of them, it will be their senior year.
Some of the tournaments the Bulldogs will wrestle in this year include the Foley tournament, which is this Saturday, Dec. 5; Farmington, Paynesville Invitational, East View, and the Paynesville Duals.
As you can see Paynesville is hosting two tournaments at home, so we hope to see a lot of fans there. Altogether, there will be about 30 matches this year with all of the duals included.
On Thursday, Dec. 3, the Bulldogs season starts with a triangular. Melrose and Annandale/Maple Lake will be traveling to Paynesville to take on the Bulldogs. Wrestling action starts at 5 p.m.