The Bemidji High School wrestlers will face five matches tonight and tomorrow, visiting Apollo tonight for a triangular with Brainerd and continuing on to the Blaine team tournament tomorrow.
Bemidji is 3-10 in duals, one shy of its four wins last winter, and could reach or surpass that mark with a pair of wins.
Those will be hard to come by tonight.
Apollo, the long time doormat of the Central Lakes Conference, has risen to the top and is challenging for its first title. That will be on line in third match of the night for Apollo, its meeting with Brainerd.
The Eagles are currently 7-0 in the CLC and 19-3 in duals.
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Brainerd is third at 5-1 and 9-2 in dual matches. Its lone loss came to Fergus Falls.
A Brainerd win would leave all three leaders with one loss. Little Falls is current second at 6-1.
Brainerd and Little Falls have yet to meet but will. Apollo beat Little Falls handily in its season opener.
Bemidji has been improving steadily under Rance Bahr and will again put a full squad on the mats for the fourth straight match.
It had not been able to do that since early in December.
It will go with: 103-Nick Ness; 112-Logan Crosby; 119-Jake Crosby; 125- Gary Molash; 130-Craig Maas; 135-Josh Dreyer; 140-Dale Norton; 145-Drew Peterson; 152-Kodi Craft; 160-LeRoy Pacheco; 171-Corey Huber; 189-Brenden Fredrickson; 215-Nick Conner and Hwt.-Alex Johnson
Brainerd and Bemidji did not meet last winter.
Apollo crushed the Jacks twice, winning 61-7 in the regular season and 58-11 in the section meet.
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Colton Doty and Huber were winners in the first match and were joined by Peterson in the second.
Bemidji lost to Cambridge 61-6 but beat Elk River 41-37 and Blaine 46-34 at the Blaine tournament last year.
Among the teams known to be there this year are Coon Rapids, Spring Lake Park and Elk River along with the Jacks and host Bengals.
The meet will not be paired until Saturday with Bemidji likely to draw one of the top two seeds in its opening match.
Other Saturday events find the girls basketball team hosting East Grand Forks at 3, the boys visiting Sartell, the boys hockey team entertaining Rocori at 3 at Nymore and the swimmers at the Hibbing Invitational.
