The Knights graduated Anthony Sykora, Beau Robinson, Justin Blascyk, and Blake Flint.  “We have been able to reload the weight classes by recruiting new wrestlers every year, and by having a solid elementary program with fantastic volunteer coaches that help feed our 7-12 program which is also coached by another fantastic group of coaches that do their best to prepare the wrestlers to compete at a high level,” added Coach Gruchow.

The Knights have strength in numbers and strength in the number of wrestlers who have prior varsity experience wrestling at a high level.  Solomon Wales (4th place finish at state last year), Will Rustan (state entrant last season), and Owen Gruchow (6th place finish at state last season) will be looking to get back and improve their placements at the state tournament.  Senior captains Adam Lohse, Solomon Wales, and Will Rustan, as well as junior captain Hunter Gruchow (State Finalist last season), will be using their previous varsity experiences to help lead their team down the path that leads to success.  “Hunter will be leading differently,” said Coach Gruchow.  “He will most likely not step onto the mat to compete as he suffered a complete ACL tear, as well as a torn meniscus injury during the football season and had surgery in mid-October.  Instead, he will be cheering on his teammates, and continue helping wrestlers with their techniques and training regiments.  Seniors Carter Lohse, Lucea Wales, Kolby Peters, Weston Ulrich, and Logan Haburn will also help lead the decently sized team of 49 wrestlers to success with their prior experiences and their knowledge of the sport.”

Other returning wrestlers with previous varsity experience include Jeremy Blascyk, Nathan Brethorst, Evan Dingwall, Gavin Flint, Skylar LaRue, Tucker McGee, Sam Olson, Ezekiel Sieckert and Jasmin Ulrich.

Wrestlers who wrestled at the JV level last season and will continue working to make the varsity team include Brody Brunkow, Max Barlow, Colton Braun-Koplin, Logon Long, Tucker Johnson, Tayden Amundson, Marlon Garza, and Freddi Munoz.  “We always look forward to seeing the new wrestlers, as well as the incoming 7th graders that usually come with successful elementary wrestling backgrounds,” said Gruchow.  Those wrestlers include Alden Eddy, Andrew Huntley, Bennett Strobel, Charley McGee, Corbin Ulrich, Dainen Nibbe, Dean Schlotka, Eli Domeier, Gauge Eide, Jayce Fuhrman, Jayce McNamara, Keiran Gehrke, Kyler Kastner, Mason Schmidt, Parker Weigand, Payton Schmidt, Cristian Ponce, Jackson Kapphahn, Kyle Klaahsen, Shayla Renolds, and William Englund.

“Goals and expectations that I have set include: having fun while working hard, getting better every day, and making memories we will never forget,” continued Coach Gruchow.  “I think United, Minnewaska Area, Morris and the Knights are the top teams in the conference, while Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale/Parkers Prairie, Long Prairie/Grey Eagle-Browerville, Pelican Rapids and Border West will be our main challengers in the Section.”