Crunch time has begun and the wrestling season is reaching its climax in suspense. The regular season has ended with sections rolling right around the corner and Coach Flodeen believes the individuals he has are well prepared for the section tournament. In order to advance to state, a wrestler must be in the top of two their section weight class, and Flodeen believes he has four of the nine spots he can get locked down with the five remaining slots vacant.The regular season did not bode as well as the coach’s post season expectations; it could have gone much better if the team had amassed more players to fill out the weight classes. To get to state, however, the individual wrestler must be great, not the whole team and as mentioned in the previous article, this Cannon Falls wrestling team has quality talent. Some of this talent has been seen consistently in recent years. Ryan Epps and Paul Fitterer amassed astounding records of 32-2 and 31-2 respectively. Younger talent that also deserves praise is held in the likes of Hayden Strain, with a win-loss of 28 to 7, and Gavin Gates, 23-10.Jodi Strain

Some of this talent has recently surfaced in the form of the up and coming wrestlers. Their heavy weight, freshman Mason Stevens, has made some major progress this year. Given enough time Flodeen considers that Stevens will have, “a big year” in the coming future. Gates is also looked highly upon by Coach, “He’s one step away from that next level,” and Coach thinks Gates will be a solid asset in the future even though he’s already a sound wrestler. Other notables are: Peter Fitterer, and Irwin Strelow; both of whom bring tons of energy and enthusiasm to the sport. Flodeen’s best advice for not only these players but all of his wrestlers is to get as many repetitions in as possible. He would like them to do “some offseason wrestling,” Greco Roman or Freestyle to name a few programs they could participate in. For now all Coach Flodeen wants them to think about is the post season and making the sought after top two. After all Flodeen doesn’t want them to look too far in the future and end up missing the cut to go to the fabled wrestling state tournament because getting a name on a plaque is better than an extra season when all is said and done.