The Blackduck/Cass Lake-Bena/Indus Wrestling Team ended their regular season Feb. 11 falling 69-9 to Grand Rapids at Cass Lake.
The Bears were again hampered by forfeits with five open weights giving the visiting Thunderhawks 30 points. Grand Rapids also tallied six pins for another 36 points winning only one match by decision as Craig Brouder lost 4-0 at 189. The host Bears won two matches; Daven Staples won a 6-3 decision and Zach Preston won by a pin.
The young Bears were no match for one of the top teams in Section 7AA. The Thunderhawks started the match pinning seventh graders Evan Weisert and Tanner George before Staples took an early lead to claim his victory.
At 130, ninth grader Aaron Geiss was a pin victim as was Jerrick Pemberton at 135 and freshman Brady Gross at 140. Senior Preston earned his fall at 145 but then the Bears forfeited four of the next five weight classes. Sophomore Brouder was the only interruption in that string coming close to scoring several times but not quite able to. Second year wrestler Derrick Gustafson was pinned at 285 to close out the dual.
In preliminary bouts involving junior high and junior varsity competitors, several wrestlers had multiple matches because Grand Rapids brought many wrestlers.
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The younger wrestlers have improved considerably especially this last month and the level of competition was excellent especially for the junior high age group.
There were some excellent leg shots by Jason Yates, Tanner Templin, Matthew Patch, David Foster, Trevor Smith, Andrew Nissen, Cooper Jedlicka, and Mason Frenzel. While not all of these resulted in takedowns it is encouraging to see that these wrestlers have improved their technique to where they know they can make the move work.
With multiple matches in progress at the same time, my list of winners may be incomplete but known winners include Yates, Templin, Foster, Nissen, Frenzel, Zack Mathews, Jedlicka, and John Doe.
Patch was involved in an action packed, triple overtime, match that he lost 7-5 in one of the more exciting matches of the evening. Smith wrestled his best match of the year showing great improvement from the beginning of the season. He will be a strong competitor for a varsity spot next season. Other wrestlers observed competing at a higher level were Paige Moore and Donavon Oxford.
This action concludes the season for the non varsity wrestlers though several may make the varsity team as alternates with an official post season team carrying 19 wrestlers.
Section 8AA team competition for the Bears was Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. in Thief River Falls against sixth seeded Roseau. The Section 8AA Individual Wrestling Tournament will be held at Cass Lake-Bena High School Feb. 26-27 with action slated to begin at noon on both days.
