Owatonna excels at numbers game
Roman Augustoviz, Star Tribune
Volunteer statistician Keith Stark keeps track of the numbers. And, with Owatonna wrestling, that’s quite a chore.
Pounds of Jolly Ranchers consumed by the Huskies? Twenty-four last season, on a 30-pounds-plus pace this season.
Pre-meet coin flips won, broken down by captains? Stark knows. And Owatonna coach Scot Davis checks sometimes.
And then there are the more important numbers. The ones nobody has attained.
On Saturday, Davis took the Huskies to his alma mater, Bloomington Kennedy, for a quadrangular meet. In their second match, Owatonna routed New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva 52-3 for its 50th victory this season and the 700th in Davis’ career.
The 50 victories are a state record, breaking a mark Owatonna set in 2002, and if the Huskies (51-1) go unbeaten through the state meet, they could win as many as 60 matches.
The 700 victories, now 701, put Davis second on the national list for career victories, and he is closing fast on the front-runner. His overall record is 701-107-4 in 28 seasons, the past 19 at Owatonna.
The Huskies also are on the verge of other assorted state team records such as most pins in a season, most points — oops, that mark also fell Saturday.
It helps that Owatonna, No. 1 in The Guillotine’s Class 3A ratings, has twice as many matches as most other state powers. How can the Huskies do that?
Minnesota State High School League wrestling scheduling rules, changed about 10 years ago, have enabled a deep team with deep pockets to do so.
Owatonna fits that description. Teams are limited to competing on 18 days during the regular season, but the number of matches they have on each date can vary from one to five.
The Huskies, outside their Big Nine Conference dual meet schedule, search for multi-team meets in Minnesota and neighboring states.
Individual wrestlers can have only 36 matches, which the Huskies watch closely, but beyond his 14 starters, Davis has others he can move in and out of the varsity lineup.
“A lot of people are happy to get to 20 wins in a season, “Davis said. “We are going to have 18 guys with 20-plus wins, and eight to 10 with 30-plus wins.”
He puts his best wrestlers against the top competition. Backups on his roster of 50 draw easier opposition.
His critics, Davis said, say all he is interested in is piling up victories. He says the heavy schedule is about all about maximizing participation to improve the program.
Seventh-grader Jordan Gnerer, for example, is 24-4 at 103 pounds. He wrestles behind sophomore Dan Card, ranked No. 4 in the state.
“Where else, except in our program, could he have had almost 30 matches? “Davis said. “Don’t you think Jordan will be better in the future because of this?”
Stark, a volunteer for 16 years, is a loyalist: “A lot of kids who would never see a varsity match on another team get 10 to 15 matches.”
Elsewhere, the extra motel and travel costs might be too hard to raise; the Huskies wrestle in five Wisconsin tournament this season. That’s where the Owatonna Wrestling Association, a booster club, helps Davis.
Next season, when the Huskies might be stronger, Owatonna will compete in a quadrangular in Cleveland with host St. Edward’s and Blair Academy, a New Jersey team. Both are national powers.
At home, the Huskies draw as well as any winter sport, with crowds of 1,500-plus for big meets, some of which become spectacles.
Against Albert Lea on Dec. 9, video highlight clips of each Owatonna wrestler, with music, were shown before he stepped on the mat.
“It was insane, I had so much adrenaline, “said senior Trevor Erler who won his 100th match that night, as did his twin brother Torris. “. . . We wrestle with high expectations. We expect to win.”
Varsity wrestlers get trading cards to hand out — they are especially hot at the junior high. The team poster, “Shooting for the Top, “is all around town, too.
That motto stems from the feats of senior Russell Smith, the state’s top-rated 171-pound wrestler who comes from a family of human cannonballs. He made his “flying “debut this summer at the Steele County Fair wearing an Owatonna wrestling warm-up. “That was a little scary, “Davis said.
So, too, are the records his Huskies keep setting.
Roman Augustoviz is at [email protected]
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