I’ve always subscribed to the belief that bad things happen in threes.Friday night in Lamberton, the Adrian Dragon wrestling team will have the chance to prove me wrong in that belief.After the Dragons disposed of Pipestone in the quarterfinal round of the Section 3AA Wrestling Team Tournament Tuesday night in Worthington, they gained position to win what could be their third consecutive section championship.I consider AHS to be the cream of the crop when it comes to wrestling in Southwest Minnesota. If the Dragons complete their quest for a three-peat Friday, it would be tough for anyone to refute my conclusion.A title in Lamberton would give the Dragons their best three-year run since the 1980s, when they made three consecutive appearances at the state team tournament since 1983-85 under legendary coach Jim Carr.I wasn’t around here at that time, but I’m sure many area scribes placed the AHS teams of the middle ’80s on the same pedestal as I do of the Dragon teams of recent years.Since I don’t know anything about Adrian’s glory years of the past, trying to compare them with the AHS squads of this century would be stupid on my part. All I really know is the modern-day Dragons are pretty good.According to current coach Gregg Nelson, AHS hasn’t lost to an unranked team during the last three seasons.During the 2003-04 and 2004-05 campaigns, AHS compiled a stunning 70-9 record. They went 36-6 and placed second in state in 2003-04, and followed it with a 34-3 season that ended with a third-place finish at the state tournament last year.Counting Tuesday night’s win over Pipestone, the 2005-06 Dragons have a solid 29-7 record."When we went through our schedule at the beginning of the year, we thought having 10 losses at this point of the season would be a good year for us," Nelson said."We knew we lost six seniors from last year’s team that were horses. We needed some other kids to step up and fill in for us in order to be successful this year, and a lot of the new faces in our lineup have been doing a good job. Obviously, we surpassed our expectations."The key to Adrian’s mat success is what appears to be a bottomless pool of talent.When I looked back at the results from Adrian’s state tournament appearance in 2003-04, I was stunned to find out only four current varsity wrestlers were members of that team.Current seniors Brandon Bullerman, Nate Engelkes and Cody Reverts, and freshman Tony Thier are the lone links to the third-place finishing squad of two years ago. That means at least 10 new individuals have stepped up to the varsity level since then, and they made the transition without AHS missing a beat in terms of success."We just have some really good, coachable kids. They are hard-working, and they are willing to listen," Nelson said."Another thing that helps us is the strength of our schedule. More than half of the teams we have faced are ranked teams. Our seven losses came against teams that were ranked in Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa and Oklahoma. Our schedule is tough, and it makes us a better team."Adrian’s salty schedule could help make it a history-matching team if it can win the section title in Lamberton Friday.Considering the Dragons already have beaten two of the three teams (Windom and T-M-B) they might face in the final two rounds of the tournament, I wouldn’t bet against AHS from achieving its three-peat.Nelson, on the other hand, isn’t ready to celebrate anything until it’s settled on the mat."If we’re at full strength, we’ll be the team to beat. But we’ll just have to wait and see what happens Friday. We haven’t lost a match to an unranked team in more three years, and it wouldn’t be a good time for that to happen Friday."If AHS does capture the section title, I’ll have to come to grips with the fact that not all things that happen in threes are bad.
