MINERAL POINT – Lancaster seniors Dustin Reynolds and Owen Austin have undoubtedly been the leaders and role models for this year’s young Flying Arrow wrestling team, and both continued to lead by example last Saturday at the SWC/SWAL Conference Clash held at Mineral Point High School.
Reynolds, who spent most of the season wrestling at 160 pounds, and is now at his tournament weight of 152, placed first in his weight class at Saturday’s conference meet and now has a season record of 33-5.
Austin, who wrestles at 132 pounds, placed second at Mineral Point and heads into regionals with a record of 22-11 after going 3-1 on Saturday.
Reynolds’ day began with a first-round bye, which he followed up with a first-period pin of Tanner Bassett of Boscobel in the quarterfinals.
In his semifinal match, Reynolds pinned Lance Ubersox of Darlington/Black Hawk in a time of 1:06, advancing to the finals, where he matched up against Shane Liegel of River Valley.
Both wrestlers entered the championship match unbeaten in conference play, and in the end it was Reynolds remaining undefeated with a 3-1 victory.
Austin’s conference meet also started off with a first-round bye, which he followed with a first-period pin of Grady Rielly of Darlington.
In his semifinal match, Austin narrowly defeated Nick Rogge of Prairie du Chien with a 3-2 decision, earning a match up with Max Maylor of Iowa-Grant/Highland for the 132-pound conference title.
Both wrestlers entered the championship match unbeaten in conference action, and is was Maylor who dominated Austin in an 18-3 technical fall, giving Austin his first conference loss of the season.
While Reynolds earned his team 32 points, and Austin 26, Lancaster heavyweight sophomore Tyler Hale picked up 26 points for his team with a second-place finish in the 285-pound weight class.
Following a first-round bye, Hale pinned his quarterfinal opponent from Riverdale, and then won a 4-3 decision over Deven O’Brien of Fennimore in the semifinals.
Matched up against Aaron McCarthy of Cuba City/Southwestern in his championship match, Hale suffered a 9-2 loss, leaving him with a season record of 17-13.
Of the six freshmen wrestling for Lancaster on Saturday, Collin Lull picked up the highest place when he finished fourth in the 120-pound weight class.
In all, the six freshmen contributed 51 of their team’s 148 total points, giving the Arrows an eighth-place team finish of the 13 competing teams.
Taking home the team title was the loaded squad from Fennimore, who managed 282 total points, 32 more than the second-place team from River Valley.
The Flying Arrows will next compete in the division 3 Riverdale Regional, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. this Saturday morning. From there, the top two finishers in each weight class will then move on to the Mineral Point Sectional on Saturday, Feb. 20.
