Wrestlers detour for holiday tourney

A snowstorm forced the New Prague Trojan wrestling team to rethink their post- Christmas plans as the team chose not to head north for the Rumble on the Red Tournament and instead head south to the Bi-State Classic in LaCrosse, WI last weekend.

"The bus company wasn’t comfortable driving northwest with the roads in that condition. Fortunately, we were able to schedule this tournament, with a number of top teams from Minnesota and Wisconsin," Coach Dan Wagner said. "It was a long five or six hours making phone calls, cancelling hotel reservations and making new reservations," he said.

The Trojans had a successful weekend, finishing eighth of 25 teams in the Division 1 grouping of the 69-team tournament and five Trojans placing in the top 10. The Trojans were 10th out of the entire 69-team field.

Best outing of the weekend was by sophomore Nick Novak. The Trojan 120- pounder, ranked No. 3 in Class AAA, placed third in the tournament. After a firstround bye, Novak won a pair of matches before losing a 4- 3 decision in the quarterfinals to Lucas Joniaux of Luxemburg- Casko, WI. He came back to win three more matches to qualify for the third place match, where he turned the tables and defeated Joniaux 9-4. Novak upped his season record to 20-1.

Junior Colby Dunkel dominated his opponents in the....

To see more on this story pick up the January 3, 2019 print edition of The New Prague Times.