| Poxleitner
earns state medal
Brandon Poxleitner earned a 6th place medal at the State Wrestling Tournament held Feb. 21-23 at the Idaho Center at Nampa. 
Poxleitner was the only one of the 5 Prairie wrestlers competing to make it to the medal rounds although James Jackson came very close. Poxleitner, wrestling at 135 lbs., lost his opening round match as he was pinned in 2:36 by Nikolai Frovik of Garden Valley. He rebounded though to win his next 3 matches to make the consolation semifinals. First he faced Alan Benson of Wendell. After a scoreless first period, Poxleitner started the second period in the down position and got into trouble but came back to scored a reversal and then pinned Benson with just 4 seconds left in the period, 2:56 into the match. In the second round of consolation he faced Nathan Eliason of Malad and finished a hard fought battle by scoring the pin with just 25 seconds left in the match at the 4:35 mark. In the consolation quarterfinals, he clinched a medal by pinning Greg Ferguson of Parma at the 3:52 mark. In the consolation semifinals he ran up against third seeded R.J. Cudney of Malad and was pinned in 57 seconds. In the 5th place match he faced opening round opponent Frovik. This time Frovik won a 5-0 decision leaving Poxleitner with a 6th place finish. Jackson, wrestling at 145 lbs., won his opening round match against Kirt Echolt of Ririe, pinning him in 1:04. In the second round he ran up against second seeded Ethan Beard of North Fremont and got off to a good start as he scored the initial takedown. Beard came back though to take a 4-5 lead by the end of the first period. After a scoreless second period, Beard scored a reversal on Jackson and then pinned him, 4:17 into the match. That dropped Jackson into the consolation bracket. He faced  Zach
Wilson of Butte County and won by pin in 1:41. In the consolation quarterfinals
he and Taylor Peck of Grace had a battle that wound up going into overtime
tied at 2-2. Peck scored the takedown in overtime to eliminate Jackson
one win short of a medal.
Michael Matson, wrestling at 160 lbs., was eliminated in two matches. He faced #2 seeded Skyler Cutler of Challis in his opening round match and was pinned in 53 seconds. In his second round match he faced Todd Lindstrom of New Plymouth. Lindstrom controlled the action and wound up pinning Matson with 11 seconds left in the second period, 2:49 into the match. Jake Wimer, wrestling at 171 lbs., had a bout with the flu during the week and came into the tournament in a weakened state. He fell behind in his opening round match 2-8 by the end of the first period. After a scoreless second period he opened the third period by scoring a takedown, taking Wade Rushton of Firth right to his back and scored the pin 4:45 into the match. In his second round match he faced third-seeded Ian Updike of Garden Valley. Updike controlled the match, racking up a 0-9 decision over Wimer. In the consolation bracket Wimer faced Dakota Cordingly of North Fremont and wound up getting pinned 3:45 into the match. Mitch Jungert, wrestling at 285 lbs., faced third-seeded Kieran Riley of Parma in the opening round. He fell behind 1-10 before getting pinned 1:00 into the match. In the consolation bracket he faced Padro Rives of Aberdeen. Rives was able to score a quick takedown on Jungert and pinned him just 37 seconds into the match. As a team Prairie wound up tied for 19th place out of 36 teams, with 23 points.  |
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