Duchscherer takes second at state wrestling

NR-S junior Matthew Duchscherer, son of Todd and Renae Duchscherer of New Rockford, placed second at 126 pounds at the State Class B Individual Wrestling Tournament in Fargo Thursday and Friday, February 18-19.

Competing for the Carrington Cardinals as he has for the last several seasons, Duchscherer was competing in his third high school state tournament. This year was a bit different from past seasons at the State B, as there was no regional individual qualifying event due to COVID-19. Because of that, Class B officials opted to add an extra individual round of 32 wrestlers per weight class. The top 12 wrestlers in each class received seeds, up from eight in previous years.

That didn't deter Duchscherer in the least. As the number two seed at 126, he took a second period pin against Garett Zink of Linton-HMB in his round of 32 match in a time of two minutes, 25 seconds, then followed that up with a 54-second fall over Kindred's Tyson Johnson. He would move to the quarterfinals to take on his first seeded wrestler, #10 Jacob Kadoun of Oakes, and won by pin in 3:25.

In the semifinal round, Duchscherer had his first real challenge of the tournament, going the distance to win by decision, 8-6, against Cristian Lagunes of Williams County (Tioga/Ray), the number six seed.

That would put him in the championship, and a familiar foe awaited him in the person of #1 seed Trevor Hinkle of Pembina County North. Hinkle handed Duchscherer his only two losses of the season prior to the finals, and unfortunately for the local grappler, Hinkle made it three for three with a 6-3 decision in the championship to end the Cardinal wrestler's season with a 26-3 record.

His 26 team points scored in the individual tournament helped CHS finish in second place overall with 209.5 points, behind five-time defending champion Lisbon's 246.

Duchscherer also wrestled in the team dual competition for Carrington, assisting them to finish in third place with a 47-30 win over PCN. In the process, he got two victories in the preliminary rounds, 7-2 over Ethan Maier of New Salem-Almont in the first round and 9-3 over Matthew Wolf of South Border in the semifinals, and, as luck would have it, he met up with Hinkle once again in the match for third. This time, Duchscherer got a small measure of revenge with a 15-9 decision.

He has been wrestling for nine years, and his hobbies also include hunting, dirt track racing, and working on cars with his dad.