Class B state wrestling: A team sweep for Oakes

Don’t say heavyweight wrestlers never cry.

The eyes of Oakes’ 285-pounder Cody Kasprick filled up with tears after he ended what was a near perfect run for the Tornadoes on Saturday at the North Dakota state wrestling tournament in the Fargodome.

One day after winning its second straight Class B dual team title, Oakes ran away with its second straight individual team title with 182 points. Oakes won four of its six championship matches — including Kasprick’s 285-pound title which avenged his only loss of the season.

“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Kasprick said after producing a second-period pin against Valley City’s Alex Andel, the wrestler who handed Kasprick his only loss of the season in last week’s Region 1 championship match.

In that match, Kasprick held control in the third period – only to get rolled over after his takedown. Kasprick lost in overtime.

“All week during practice, I worked on slowing things down,” said Kasprick, who finished with a 29-1 record.

“Cody just rolled over too fast last time,” said Oakes coach Cory Schall, who himself teared up when describing this year’s team. “This group was one of my first groups when I became head coach. They were just little things. They have been just good kids who train hard and work hard.”

The training paid off for 189-pound senior Ethan Plemel, who finished his season with a perfect 32-0 record. He produced a major decision win over Jamison Jangula of Edgeley-Ellendale in the title match.

“Senior year … this is the best way to go out,” Plemel said, after giving his mom and dad big hugs in front of the awards stand. “I couldn’t ask for anything more right now … except maybe for a bottle of water.”

Oakes’ senior Lance Ehrlin celebrated his 18th birthday by knocking off top-seeded Brady Lund of Watford City in the 135-pound title match. After losing to Lund 8-7 three weeks ago in the East-West Classic at New Salem, Ehrlin produced a 1-0 win.

“The first time we wrestled he had two takedowns in the first period,” Ehrlin said. “I didn’t want that to happen again. I wanted to get out of that first period 0-0.”

Ehrlin, whose only other loss in 31 matches was to a Webster, S.D., wrestler, scored his winning point in the third period when Lund was called for stalling. Ehrlin then held off a reversal with 30 seconds left and hung tightly to Lund’s leg with 15 seconds left.

“I was kind of going ‘oh man,’” Ehrlin said, referring to Lund’s reversal attempt. “I just dug down deep and kept driving him and finally rode him out of bounds.”

There were more Oakes highlights:

— Junior Brady Coleman, sidelined part of the season with a broken finger, finished the season with a perfect 21-0 record after his 5-0 win over Napoleon’s Ryan Becker in the 119-pound title match.

— Junior Deven Loepp, wrestling with a hyperexteneded elbow he suffered in Friday’s semifinals, was unable to upset top-seeded Mikey Rusk of New Salem in the 125-pound title match. Rusk, a senior, won 5-1 to improve to 35-1 while the third-seeded Loepp finished at 31-4.

— Senior Taylor Ptacek, a No. 3 seed at 160, lost his title bid to top-seeded New Salem senior Nate Seeger with a 10-2 loss. Seeger finished the season with a 26-0 record while Ptacek finished with a 33-3 record.

North Dakota state tournament team results

At Fargodome in Fargo, N.D.

Team scores: Oakes 182, Carrington 143?, Lisbon 118, New Salem 118, South Border 98?, Central Cass 96, Hillsboro-Central Valley 90, Valley City 89, Napoleon 85, Rolla-Rock Lake-St. John 84, Watford City 72, North Border 71, Killdeer 69, Velva 65?, Linton-HMB 64?, New Town 43, Hettinger 42, LaMoure 35, Des Lacs-Burlington 33?, Beulah-Hazen 33, Rugby 30, Ellendale-Edgeley-Kulm 27, Beach 19, Minot Bishop Ryan 19, Harvey 17?, Grafton 11, Mayville-Portland-CG 11, Kenmare-Tioga-Ray 9, Larimore 9, Stanley-Powers Lake 6, Bowman 5, Standing Rock 1, Kindred 0.

Kevin Schnepf is a reporter for the Forum, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.

Tags: class b, news, sports, wrestling, oakes