It’s alumni night on Saturday for #6 Parkside Rangers as they get set to host #12 UMary Marauders at 7pm in De Simone Arena. It is also Cayden Henschel bobble head night for the first 200 fans that show up. Also if you haven’t had a chance to listen to our hour plus sit down with Cayden Henschel last week click here to watch.
Saturday night’s dual will feature 11 ranked wrestlers. For the #6 Rangers taking that mat will be #5 Shane Corrigan (125), #2 Jalen Spuhler (149), #4 Easton Worachek (157), #7 Brody Hemauer (165), #3 Dajun Johnson (174), #13 Brady Schuh (184), #13 Jordan Blanchard (197). For the #12 Marauders it will be #5 Jacob Strausbaugh (133), #4 Sean Solis (141), #13 Kaden Renner (157), #3 Luke Tweeton (285).
Of the 11 ranked wrestlers competing, 7 are ranked top 5 in the country. We will also see one of head to head ranked matchup with #4 Worachek and #13 Renner. That might be the only ranked head to head match but keep an eye on 133 and 141. First, at 133 the Rangers have a roster battle still going on (yes it’s very late in season) with Rodriguez and Chi. Neither of which are ranked this year and I believe that is a result of splitting time. However last season Chi was in the rankings all year (until nationals) where he was ranked as high as 3rd in the country. Whoever the Rangers send out here will be a very game opponent for #5 Strausbaugh.
Then at 141 it looks like another roster battle is still taking place with Craft and Dolphin for the Rangers. Both guys have knocked of nationally ranked wrestlers before and of recent, Dolphin pinned at the time the #1 ranked wrestler in the country at Nationals Duals with a cradle. Further illustrating the point that they might not be currently ranked but these Rangers have the skills to garner the upset Saturday night.
As far as matchups go across the board I think UMary matches up decently for being the team with less ranked wrestlers. In a perfect world on paper they might wish their ranked wrestlers were all at a weight where Parkside had ranked wrestlers. Allowing them to potentially steal some wins the Rangers normally count on. But that’s not the case.
The reality is Parkside is a very deep team and with 7 ranked and 3 other weights with more than capable wrestlers the dual will favor the home Rangers. Every match is important but in division 2 and in the NSIC conference where you will see all these teams again at regionals the wins matter just a little bit more. These matches will have a direct effect on seeding at regionals at the end of the year. Yes, you should train to beat everyone but with very deep brackets and only top 3 qualifying you would be naive to not also realize you can make that path to qualify much easier with a solid regular season and a few key wins.
For Worachek this will be one of those key wins as he faces the 13th ranked wrestler and there are currently 4 ranked wrestlers (including him) in the top 15 at his region.
As I said it is Alumni night in Kenosha and there are a ton of you! So show up, be loud and cheer on your #6 Rangers Saturday night at 7pm.
