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OAKLAND - The Randolph Cardinal wrestling team had a a busy and successful week on the mat with two individuals celebrating career victories as well.
Gavin Wortman and Gage Jensen celebrated 100 career wrestling wins; and the Cardinals boys wrestling team ended the week with a fourth-place team finish in the Oakland-Craig Invitational here on Jan. 27 and went 5-1 to claim runner-up honors in the Lewis & Clark Conference gathering, which used a dual format, on Jan. 23.
The 5-1 record in the conference duals, lifted Randolph to 13-4 on the season with just a couple of dual meets left and leaving the Cards 11th in the power rankings in Class D.
At the latest meet in Oakland, the Redbirds scored a lot of points against much bigger teams, as far as enrollment is concerned. But never count Randolph out.
Westwood out of Iowa won the meet with 208 points to claim the team title. West Point-Beemer was runnerup at 170, Omaha Buena Vista was third with 166.5 and the Cardinals were fourth at 154.
Randolph parlayed seven individual medals into the fourth-place showing and produced an individual champion in Gage Jensen, who improved to 34-3 on the season with a gold medal at 165.
Jensen was the lone champion in the meet, but the Cards were far from silent.
Bentley Reimers was second at 106, John Leija was runner-up at 150 pounds and Gavin Wortmann grabbed the second spot on the podium at 175.
In addition, Justin Backer was third at 175, Cole Jensen was fourth at 132 and Tate Brodersen and Talyn Meyer were each fifth.
In the girls’ potion of the invitational, South Sioux City won the team title with 123 points. Tekamah-Herman was second with 117 and Lyons-Decatur Northeast was third with 64.
The Lady Cardinals were 11th with 5.5 points, all scored by Peyton Thelen who ended up fifth at 130 pounds. Teammate Mabel Ngebeh was sixth at 140.
In the Lewis & Clark Conference meet, the Cardinals defeated Winside 51-12, Osmond/Wausa 42-21, Winnebago 48-23, Tri County Northeast 48-9, Homer 42-30 then lost to Creighton, the conference champion, 43-24.
Homer wound up third; Winnebago fourth; Osmond/ Wausa fifth; Winside sixth and Tri County Northeast was seventh.
