The Watertown-Mayer wrestling team recently capped off their pre-Christmas break part of the season.
On Dec. 20-21, the team traveled to Rochester for the premier Minnesota Christmas tourney, consisting of 41 teams and featuring the top twelve ranked teams in Class AAA, the top four ranked teams in Class AA, and several ranked Class A and ranked out of state teams. The Royals wrestlers had a great weekend overall. As a team, they finished in fifth place and were the highest placing Class AA school, finishing only behind the top four ranked teams in Class AAA.
Watertown-Mayer also had six wrestlers place in the top eight, including three champions. The Royals were the only team with three champions other than powerhouse STMA, who had four. The champions were Joel Friederichs at 121 pounds, Titan Friederichs at 127 and Bryce Burkett at 172. Other place winners were Kaleb Mead placing fifth at 139, Kyler Burmeister placing sixth at 215 and Sully Marx placing eighth at 133.
“It was a good way to go into a short Christmas break for the team,” said coach Kurt Becker. “All of our guys wrestled well this weekend and got some great experience to help prepare them for the rest of the season and postseason. We will take about a week off to rest and heal up from the grind of the first part of the season.