Venz champion at Eastview invite
Illness pinning most of Tiger wrestlers for now
The Farmington wrestling team finished 11th of 12 teams at the Eastview Invitational last weekend, but the Tigers still had some highlights.
Taylor Venz finished first at 106 pounds, beating No. 5-ranked Christian Bahl of Stillwater 10-2 to win the championship. In the semifinals Venz defeated Alex Lloyd of Shakopee, who was 21-4 leading up to the match.
Matt Rustad was fifth at 132 in another tough bracket, which included four of the top wrestlers in the state and nine with winning records.
Rustad lost to No. 8-ranked Joe Anderson of Coon Rapids 5-4 in the quarterfinals. Anderson went on to finish first. In the fifth-place match, Rustad defeated No. 9 Brandon Peters of Faribault 2-0. He avenged a loss to Peters two weeks earlier.
Jamie Scavone also had a fifth-place finish at 220, winning a tight match against Lee Whiteside of Minneapolis South 2-1 in overtime.
With illness taking its toll on the Tigers, the team had just seven wrestlers at the individual tournament.
“We are starting to get some guys back from illness and injury, but are probably two weeks away from having everyone back in our lineup,” head coach Chad Olson said. “Our goal is to have everyone healthy and ready to go for (Feb. 8) when we wrestle (No. 12-ranked) Anoka and then springboard that into team sections.”
