Owatonna Wrestling upsets the 12th ranked Rochester Mayo Spartans. They are currently 11-8 at the midway mark through their season. The Huskies are younger than recent teams in the past, as they lost a few key players last season. The coaches have adapted and prepared for this year greatly. 

Senior captain Cael Robb, has a team attitude when considering the goals for the season. 

Robb said,“The season has gone good so far, we had a few bumps in the road but other than that we’re feeling good.” 

Team goals for the end of the year is to compete for a section title and hope to make it to state. Robb is currently ranked top three in the state and hopes to make another deep run in the state tournament. 

One of the breakout stars of the season is sophomore Blake Fitcher.

Fitcher said, “The season is going alright, it’s been a roller coaster. One of my biggest accomplishments of the season was winning the Ethan Herman Memorial Tournament”. 

Fitcher said,”We are pretty well put together and we have really good team chemistry.” Fitcher aims to make it to state and hopefully place at the major tournaments coming up. 

Coach Derek Johnson is in his second year. Johnson was a former State Champion at Owatonna and is excited to be back in the program.

Huskies beat Rochester Mayo and Mankato West on Thursday, Jan. 26.

Coach Johnson said,“So we kept having a common thread of doing, you know, 90% right, in the big meets, and then the 10% killed us and tonight. We shortened that up to basically 99% right, which led to a win over ranked Mayo.” 

Johnson knows he has a young team this year, but he is extremely proud of the team and looking forward to continuing their success. 

The Huskies are sitting at 5th in the Big 9 Conference and look to make their way up the table. The Huskies will compete against the Albert Lea Tigers Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at The Albert Lea High School.