A winter of rare achievements
COMMENTARY
The winter prep sports season is 153 days long. After a while it seems an event is scheduled for each day.
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Throw in the increased number of activities compared to the fall and spring seasons and there is a never-ending stream of action across the state.
For those reasons it seems the winter season is witness to many strange and unique events.
Take Wadena-Deer Creek wrestlers Trey VanOrsdel and Tony Wegscheid. The teammates each registered 100 career victories on the same day during the same round of the Pine to Prairie tournament at Fertile Jan. 5. They both went on to win individual titles in their weight classes.
Trey VanOrsdel reached 100 career wrestling victories.
VanOrsdel finished 3-0 and pinned Trandem Kappedal of Fosston-Bagley in the 140-pound championship round.
Wegscheid had a first-round bye and finished 2-0 by pinning Staples-Motley's Kodeiy Lind in the 189-pound title match.
W-DC head coach Norm Gallant said he wasn't surprised his senior co-captains reached the career milestones together.
"It seems only fitting that they would earn their 100th on the same day, during the same round and with pins," said Gallant. "It's an honor to have these two wrestlers reach the 100-win milestone on the same day.
Tony Wegscheid reached 100 career wrestling victories.
"They are such great leaders and great friends. They have had great careers and they still have some pretty lofty goals to achieve this season."
VanOrsdel is the son of Keith and Sonia VanOrsdel and has been on the varsity since eighth grade. He was a state participant as a sophomore. His career record stands at 104-59. His season record is 21-2 with 18 pins, eight shy of the school-record 26 pins for a season.
Wegscheid is the son of John and Lisa Wegscheid. He has wrestled varsity since ninth grade and is a two-time state entrant. He was the Section 7-1A champion last year at 171 pounds. He owns a 104-34 career record with a season mark of 18-2 with nine pins.
Bryce Tesdahl became the all-time leading C-I boys' basketball scorer.
The two became the 18th and 19th members of W-DC's 100-win club.
"Trey is a very relentless wrestler," said Gallant. "He has been a pinning machine for us this season and really throughout his career.
He has a wicked cradle and is extremely strong and wiry.
"Tony has worked very hard to get better on his feet and it is paying dividends against good wrestlers. He has really worked hard to develop a style that will allow him to do well at the state tournament and against good kids."
Another rarity occurred Friday when the Lake Region Christian School Hornets boys' basketball team battled Heritage of Karlstad and Victory of Rochester on the same day.
Ben Hanowski became the second Little Falls Flyer to reach 200 points.
None of the three schools are part of the Minnesota State High School League, but rather the Minnesota Association of Christian Schools. The schools don't follow the number of halves played in a day rule.
"This was a round-robin type deal," said Lake Region principal Steve Ogren. "With Karlstad and Rochester both pushing 5-hours in travel we wanted to get in as much basketball as possible."
Lake Region went on to win both games, 47-42 over Karlstad and 52-35 over Victory.
"We've been trying to make our game more physical and to be in better shape than the other team, so that came in well Friday," said Hornets head coach Tim Miller. "We do a lot of conditioning and we like to push the ball."
The Hornets had to play with one less player since their starting center was sick.
Career milestones
Crosby-Ironton senior Bryce Tesdahl became the all-time leading boys' basketball scorer in school history Saturday. He scored 23 points against Duluth Marshall to surpass Reid Kuschel's 1,555 career points set in 1998. Tesdahl has 1,556 career points. Nicole Hills (1,649 career points), who graduated in 1993, is the school's all-time leading scorer.
Little Falls junior Ben Hanowski became the second member of the Little Falls Flyers 200-point club. He accomplished the feat in an 11-0 victory over Morris-Benson Dec. 27.
Hanowski has 223 career points (98 goals, 125 assists) after Saturday's 10-3 victory over Detroit Lakes. He trails only Jared Festler (247 career points) on the Flyers' scoring list.
jeremy millsop, sports writer, may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5856.