In wrestling action at Thief River Falls Feb. 20, the fourth seeded Thief River Falls Prowlers used a pair of upset victories to claim the Section 8AA team wrestling championship.
The Prowlers defeated top seeded Fergus Falls 41-30 in the semifinals and then upended second seeded Perham 40-28 for the championship. The Prowlers begin state tournament team action March 4 at 9:30 a.m. against second seeded Foley.
Roseau defeated the Blackduck/Cass Lake-Bena/Indus Bears 65-12 in first round action but fell 61-13 to Staples-Motley in the quarterfinals. Staples-Motley then lost 32-31 to Perham in the semifinal round. Perham had earlier ousted Fosston/Bagley 45-25.
In the top bracket Pequot Lakes/Pine River-Backus beat newcomer United Clay Becker 39-34 before losing to Fergus Falls 63-10. Detroit Lakes eliminated East Grand Forks/Sacred Heart 69-6 and then fell prey to the Prowlers 42-24.
The Bears forfeited only three weights against Roseau drawing on two wrestlers from Indus and three from Cass Lake-Bena to augment the eight entrants from Blackduck.
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Nathan Jablonski came from behind in the third period using a three quarter nelson to score a fall for six of the Bear points. The other six team points came from a forfeit awarded to Brady Gross at 140 pounds.
Only a pair of matches lasted six minutes as Daven Staples lost 5-4 at 119 and Craig Brouder gave up four points in the third period to lose 8-4 at 215 pounds. Zach Preston took a 2-0 lead on the best double leg shot of his career but he was reversed late in the first period to go into the second period tied 2-2. Preston tried to muscle instead of wrestle and was defeated by a 20-4 technical fall with over 30 seconds remaining in the match.
Roseau used the half nelson very effectively scoring pins over Evan Weisert, Tanner George, Jerrick Pemberton, Butch Strand, Paul Lutgen and John Doe.
The Section 8AA Individual Wrestling Tournament was Feb. 26-27 at Cass Lake with the top two individuals at each weight qualifying for the state tournament. With Al Goodwin out of action, top threats for the Bears are Jablonski, Preston and Staples, none of whom are likely to be seeded in the top two.
