Westonka Wrestlers Find Their Mojo in Quad Meets

Westonka’s wrestling squad went 5-1 in two quad meets on Dec. 20 and 21 and went into break with an impressive 9-3 record.  

“We’ve wrestled well and have been right in all of the dual meets this year,” said head coach Todd Munsterteiger. “It has been a good first part of the season, but we still have a lot of work to do to achieve our goals for the season.“ 

On Tuesday the White Hawks traveled to Richfield for a quad against host school Richfield-Edina and section foes Robbinsdale Armstrong and Wayzata.  

In the first two duals, the White Hawks blasted Armstrong 63-6 and outlasted Richfield-Edina 42-30, setting up a showdown with section rival Wayzata.  

The Trojans have knocked the White Hawks off in section team competition the past five years, but the White Hawks have gotten closer each time. Unfortunately, the White Hawks came up short again, falling 36-32.  

“We knew we had a shot against them, and split the matches 7-7,” assistant coach Eric Rodelius said. “Next time we need to win the battle of bonus points and finally get over the hump.”

The White Hawks followed Tuesday night’s action with another quad against host Park Center, Minneapolis Southwest and St. Paul Central, coming away with three more wins. The White Hawks started out the evening with a 57-18 win over Park Center, then defeated St. Paul Central 45-27 and ended the evening with a 75-3 victory over Minneapolis Southwest.

“It was a good night of wrestling for us and a great way to go into break on a positive note,” said freshmen coach John Wardlow.

Along with the team’s strong start, many individuals are also having a great deal of early season success.

Sam Bennyhoff, Tyler Hebig, and Will Van Sant are all undefeated; Bryan Tierney has only one loss, Ben Rogers just two, and John Byers has a solid 12-4 record.  

“The more success we can have as a team will translate into great seasons for these kids individually,” senior consultant Gerry Bakke said. “When we have guys like Ben Rogers , Tyler Ihli, and Bryan Tierney wrestling one to two weights up for us, and hanging in there the way they have, it shows that we have a team-first mentality that will really pay off in the end.”

The White Hawks will resume action on Saturday, January 7, when they head to Hopkins for the Paul Bengston Invitational. First round action begins at 10 a.m. 

Information provided by the Westonka Wrestling Program.