by Jason Olson
Thisweek Newspapers

Burnsville wrestlers continued their tough schedule Jan. 19 at the Apple Valley Eagles Invitational.

The Blaze lost a dual to the Eagles on Jan. 18 with less than a full roster for various reasons, from injury to match counts getting high.

The Blaze finished seventh out of eight teams in the individual tournament.

Top-ranked Apple Valley won nine of the weight classes, including 135 pounds where Matt Mincey topped Burnsville's Jose Quintana by a tech fall (20-2) 4 minutes, 24 seconds into the match.

Against 2007 state champion Mincey, Quintana did his best to score points, but head coach Bill Soderholm said it was a very difficult challenge.

"There were some high-powered teams there," Soderholm said. "We know it's tough. It's always going to be tough, and that's one of the reasons we do it.

"But we don't really live and die by the outcome of a single match during the year. What matters comes at the end of the year."

Apple Valley's Dakota Trom pinned Burnsville's Ali Mohammed at 1:22 of their 112-pound bout.

Soderholm said Mohammed did a great job of taking down Trom, but the state-ranked Eagles grappler rolled through the take-down and pinned Mohammed.

Yusef Hassan won his third-place match at 215 pounds for Burnsville with a 5-4 decision over Apple Valley's Luke Schmidt.

Soderholm said his 215-pounder competed well against his Apple Valley counterpart, but still has room to grow.

"He did well in the semis and did OK against the Apple Valley wrestler in his match," Soderholm said. "He still has room to improve, but he's making fewer and fewer mistakes."

Burnsville's Thanh Vu lost his third-place match at 119 pounds to finish fourth to Luxemburg-Casco's Adam Zehren by fall at 2:16.

Burnsville's Nick Durand won his fifth-place match at 140 pounds with a 5-0 decision over Luxemburg-Casco's (Wisconsin) Troy Enderby.

Burnsville's Zach Thompson lost his fifth-place match at 103 pounds to Irondale's Devin Wolf by fall at 2:59, and Steven Nguyen fell to Irondale's Tyler Abrahamson by a 10-0 major decision at heavyweight.

Burnsville's Brian Woelfel continues to heal an injury that has kept him out of competition for nearly a month. Soderholm said he expects Woelfel to be out for another week or two. The 171-pounder has been spelled by freshman C.J. Smth a majority of the time.

"He's a small 171-pounder, but the matches he's wrestled, he's given it all he's got against some big tough kids," Soderholm said.

Smith, along with the rest of the Burnsville ninth-grade team, will compete at the ninth-grade league sections Jan. 26 with a chance at wrestling at the ninth-grade league state tournament, coming up in February.

Jason Olson can be reached at sports.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.