As Itasca concludes its regular season and gears up for the post-season, here’s a look at where the Vikings are at.
Heading into the conference championships and national qualifier in Thief River Falls on February 19th, the Vikings are feeling confident. The starting line-up has been finalized as of the Pioneer Open this past weekend. The Vikings had two champions – David Platt (149) bumped up to compete at 157 pounds and got two pins and a big win in the finals. The other champion was Zayne Brown at 125 pounds, getting two pins to close out a great regular season.
The next task for Itasca is to qualify wrestlers for the NJCAA Nationals. Vikings wrestlers will need to either come away with a conference championship or hope they proved enough throughout the year and at the conference championships to earn a wildcard bid.
On the academic and off-the-mat side, the 15-man travel squad capped off the first semester with a GPA of 3.31 and 2,087 community service hours by the team.
The starting lineup and regular-season recap for the Vikings starters are as follows:
125- Zayne Brown: So (MN)
- Overall Record: 11-2
- NJCAA Record: 7-1
- Highlights: Pioneer Champion, 11 Bonus Point Wins
133- Johnny Colon: Fr (PA)
- Overall Record: 11-2
- NJCAA Record: 7-1
- Highlights: Pioneer Runner-Up
141- Charlie Black: So (KA)
- Overall Record: 8-3
- NJCAA Record: 7-0
- Highlights: Undefeated in NJCAA
149- David Platt: Fr (MN)
- Overall Record: 17-0
- NJCAA Record: 11-0
- Highlights: Pioneer Champion, 13 Bonus Point Wins, Undefeated in NJCAA
157- Seth Cobb: So (AZ)
- Overall Record: 7-6
- NJCAA Record: 5-3
- Highlights: Pioneer 3rd Place, 5 Bonus Point Wins
165- Peyton Hermann: Fr (MN)
- Overall Record: 8-0
- NJCAA Record: 8-0
- Highlights: Undefeated in NJCAA, 5 Bonus Point Wins
174- Kristian Orloff: Fr (WI)
- Overall Record: 8-6
- NJCAA Record: 7-1
- Highlights: 6 Bonus Point Wins
184- Robert Solorio: So (AZ)
- Overall Record: 9-6
- NJCAA Record: 7-4
- Highlights: 6 Bonus Point Wins
197- Linus Brown: Fr (MN)
- Overall Record: 1-2
- NJCAA Record: 1-1
- Highlights: 1 Bonus Point Win
285- Connor Bleymeyer: Fr (MN)
- Overall Record: 2-0
- NJCAA Record: 1-0
- Highlights: All Bonus Point Wins
Check out Vikings Wrestling at itascaathletics.com and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.