Joey Novak wins 100th career match

 Trojan grapplers defeat two state rated teams

For the first time in 19 days, the New Prague wrestling team returned to the mat for a dual Friday, Feb. 19 at Hutchinson.

The Trojans won this Wright County Conference dual, 51-18, winning 10 of the 14 matches.

Junior Alex Gregor earned his first varsity win at 220 pounds.

Koy Buesgens (126), Colton Bornholdt (138), Nick Novak (145), Joey Novak (152), and Evan Anderson (285) each won by fall.

Evan Farley (120) won by technical fall and Brady Westall (113) won by major decision.

“Whenever you take that amount of time, in the middle of a season, you get concerned with taking a step back conditioning wise and worry about losing focus. However, the Trojans proved to me that they took the quarantine practices and opportunities seriously,” head coach Dan Wagner said. “It was like they didn’t miss a beat. In fact, I wonder if it gave them a little opportunity to reset/recover from the grind. In the dual, the team wrestled with physicality and intensity.”

The following morning New Prague hosted Class AAA No. 8 ranked Owatonna and Class AA No. 13 ranked Scott West.

The Trojans, ranked No. 15 in Class AAA, edged Owatonna, 36-31, and Scott West, 34-32. The two wins improve their record to 13-2.

In the win over the Huskies, the highlight matchup of the dual was #7AAA (120) Evan Farley knocking off #3AAA (120) Cael Robb 6-4 in overtime! #1AAA at 126 pounds Koy Buesgens also picked up a huge win for the Trojans as he pinned the #5 ranked 126AAA Kanin Hable in 3:11.

The Trojans picked up three technical falls by Bornholdt (132), Luke Dorweiler (138), and J. Novak (152).
N. Novak (145) was a winner by fall. Brady Westall (113), and Evan Anderson (220) each won by decision.

In the match with Scott West, there were plenty of twists and turns.

New Prague dropped....

To see more on this story pick up the February 25, 2021 print edition of The New Prague Times.