Location:  LaMoure High School

Team Race:  #1 Lisbon and #2 South Border will take the mat for one last showdown before the state tournament Lisbon has gotten the best of their in-region rival thus far on the year, most recently winning tournament titles at both the Lisbon Storhaug Invite and New Salem’s East West. South Border has the power to flip those results, but it will take a herculean effort with little margin for error.

Toughest Weight:  138

Provided there isn’t any movement, the 138 pound weight class will boast the top two wrestlers in the state in #1 Chandler Nagel of Linton/HMB and #2 Boeden Greenley of Lisbon.  Throw in South Border’s #4 Jon Schockley and Oakes #6 Brackin Awender and you have the potential for the top four placewinners at state to be Region 1 guys.  Missed time has made this weight class even more interesting, as both Nagel and Awender both missed large parts of the season.  Awender returned January 14, and since then his lone Class B loss came to Ethan Hammons of New Salem.  Nagel has only 21 matches this season, with his lone loss to Redfield Area (South Dakota)’s Bradyn Robbins.

Honorable Mention:  145/152/182/220:  These weights aren’t as top-heavy as 138, but the depth is similar.  Garrett Hebl (LaMoure), Hunter Schwab (Lisbon), and Anton Carruth (EEK) rank second through fourth respectively at 145 behind only Pembina County North’s Tanner Urlaub.  Also in the mix are Kindred’s Brock Roesler and Linton’s Trey Jacob.  Unless there is movement, a solid wrestler or two will miss the state tournament at 145.

Individual Matchups to keep and eye on:

113:  #4 Charles Herr (South Border) vs.  #5 Mike Nelson (Lisbon):  Nelson and Herr are 2-2 on the year, with Nelson winning the last bout at Regional Duals.  Just one of a laundry lost of important matches South Border will need to catch the Broncos.

120:  #1 Marshall Lindgren (SB) vs. #2 Carter Schmitz (Kindred):  State champion Schmitz has two losses to Lindgren this season.  The Storhaug final was particularly crazy, as Schmitz dominated early before Lindgren took control and won the match in overtime.

138:  #1 Chandler Nagel (Linton-HMB) vs. #2 Boeden Greenley (Lisbon):  106 pound state champion Greenley has been second behind state finalist Nagel all season, but it hasn’t been because of a head to head matchup.  The match all of Region 1 has been waiting for will finally happen Saturday in LaMoure.  Greenley has only lost one match in two years of varsity wrestling and has been healthy all year, so he is probably slight favorite in this one under the circumstances.

145:  Garrett Hebl (LaMoure) vs. Hunter Schwab (Lisbon) vs. Anton Carruth (EEK):  Hebl will be the one seed because of his two tight victories over Schwab, but with the previous stated depth at this weight, even the top seed is not a guarantee to advance through.  Hebl’s 9-7 win over Kindred’s Brock Roesler shows that this weight class is bound to be wild.

160:  #1 Jordan Sours (Lisbon) vs. #2 Jake Herr (South Border):  Sours owns four wins over Herr to this point, but all have been close.  At the Lisbon Storhauf, Herr pushed Sours to overtime before ultimately dropping the match.  Start the finals at 170, and finish with the most important match of the tournament.

170:  Garrett Jangula (Napoleon) vs. the field:  Region 1 wrestling fans get one more opportunity to watch one of the all time Napoleon and Class B wrestlers.  Hopefully when Jangula’s hand is raised Saturday evening, fans in LaMoure stand and give the senior his due.

182: The top four of Logan Sell (Oakes), Ethan Carruth (EEK), Avery Dick (Lisbon), and Ashton Peterson (SB) are all in the top six.  The winner here will have the inside track on the #2 seed behind Corbin Okeson of Bishop Ryan.

220:  Peyton Gruenfelder (Napoleon) vs. Sam Rieger (Lisbon) vs. Ethan Ellingson (EEK) vs. Hunter Greenmeyer (Oakes).  Another weight where four wrestlers find themselves ranked in the top six in the state.  Gruenfelder has put together the best season, but he does have an early-season loss to Ellingson and all four matches have been within three points.  Gruenfelder and Rieger are also 1-1 on the year.

What did we miss?  What are you looking most forward to this weekend in LaMoure>