Wales Tourism and Visit Planning

Bell, Skaar, Friedhof lead wrestling team

Date 2/20/1997 12:00 AM | Topic: Sports

On January 29, the Norse were in action against Simpson with Nate Skaar '97(142) defeating Jason Hammen at 2:35 with a fall. Robert Rivas '00 politely saw Matt Corbett off at 118 pounds while Joe Grider (158), returning to the mat after a two-week absence due to injury made sure of Casey Aldridge in a 15-4 major decision. Mark Bell '97scored the only take down of the heavyweight match with less than 10 seconds remaining, defeating Jeremy Whalen 3-1.

Luther was again in action on February 1, at the IIAC Duals where the Norse registered a 3-1 win. Rivas and Skaar pulsated the Norse with 4-0 records. On the whole, the Norse defeated Dubuque (24-11), erased William Penn (51-0) and gleaned Central (39-3). The only loss was in the fourth and final duel against Loras (14-30).

On February 8, the Norse placed third at the 35th Annual All-Lutheran Wrestling Tournament held at Luther. Augsburg scored 170 team points with second place Wartburg trailing at 153.5 . Luther took third place with 60 points followed by St. Olaf with 59.5, Augustana- Rock Island 59, Waldorf 54.5 and Concordia-Moorhead with 37.

On February 13, the Norse made it to the final meet of the season in Upper Iowa University. The Peacocks indeed had a reason to proudly fan out their tails after defeating the Norse 35-20. Bell, Freidhof and Skaar won their matches. Skaar earned a technical fall over Austin Reed while Freidhof defeated Matt Stannke at 167.

The Norse now have an overall record of 9-6-2. Skaar, Bell and Freidhof have all surpassed the 30-win mark. Skaar leads the team at 36-7 followed by Freidhof at 34-9 and Bell with 33-6 mark.

The intrepid Norse will be at the 1997 Iowa Conference championships hosted by the University of Dubuque on Friday, Feb. 21. This one day tournament will begin at 10:00 am with the finals coming off at 6:30pm. The Iowa Conference can qualify 27 wrestlers for the national tournament which will be held at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio on Mar. 5-8.

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Compiled Nii Lokko
Sports Writer

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