Braeden Person 2nd at Auburndale; team splits league duals

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

Braeden Person and Ethan Person wrestled their way to top-five finishes to lead the five-member Cornell-Gilman wrestling team Saturday at the Auburndale Invitational.

Braeden, a freshman, went 2-1 and placed second in the seven-man bracket at 132 pounds. He opened with a 15-3 major decision over Royall’s Ethan Palamaruk in the quarterfi nals and then earned his spot in the championship bout with a semifinal pin over Plainfi eld Tri-County’s Sean Grueneberg in 1:11.

In the finals, Person (5-4) met 8-1 Jackson McCormick of Black River Falls, who pinned him in 4:34 to take the title.

Ethan Person, a senior, went 2-2 in contested matches to place fifth at 120 pounds.

Wrestling in a 10-man bracket, Person (8-3) drew a tough quarterfinal matchup with freshman Daylin Haney of the La Crosse Logan-Central co-op. Haney (124) won 4-0 to send Person to the consolation side of the bracket. Person outlasted Chace Kobs of St. Charles, Minn. 11-8 in his first match but then was pinned in 3:22 in the semifinals by Crandon’s Cole Shepherd, who is 11-4. That loss sent Person to the fifth-place match, where he finished his day by winning a good one with Abbotsford-Colby’s Jose Rodriguez 7-6.

Sophomore Julian Krizan (6-5) placed eighth out of 14 wrestlers at 160 pounds. He opened with a tight 7-6 decision over Abbotsford-Colby’s Joe Hawthorne but then was pinned in the quarterfinals in 3:43 by Royall’s Ashton Roach. Eau Claire North’s Davin Xiong pinned Krizan in 4:21 and La Crosse Logan-Central’s Sam Veenstra edged Krizan 9-8 in the eighthplace match.

Kalley Krizan placed sixth out of seven wrestlers at 138 pounds. She was pinned in 43 seconds by Royall’s Caeden Dobbratz in the opening round. In the consolation bracket, she fell in 14 seconds to 14-1 Ryan Applebee of Tri-County and Dobbratz pinned her in 1:30 in a rematch in the fifth-place match.

Ali Blodgett was 11th at 152 pounds, losing by pin to Abbotsford-Colby’s David Vicente (1:09) and Tri-County’s Brian Bauer (:28).

The Wolfpack scored 63 points during the meet to place 12th out of 14 teams, beating Tri-County (43.5) and Thorp (30). The La Crosse co-op won the tournament with 230.5 points, just ahead of Chequamegon (221) and Abbotsford-Colby (208). Royall (180) and Manawa (179) rounded out the top five.

The Wolfpack is scheduled to attend the two-day River Falls Northern Badger Wrestling Classic Friday and Saturday.

Shell Lake duals

Four Lakeland Conference teams got together in Shell Lake Thursday to complete two of their league dual meets for the season.

The Wolfpack matched up with the host Lakers and Turtle Lake-Clayton and came away with a split.

Shell Lake won the first dual 25-24. There were three contested matches. The Wolfpack’s Andrew Olson got a 23-second pin over Sam Beecroft to win the 285-pound match. Blodgett put up a strong fight but came up just short in her 152-pound bout with Ben Coen 9-7. Laker Cody Swan got a key 9-0 major decision over Braeden Person at 138 pounds.

Kalley Krizan took a forfeit at 145 pounds, Julian Krizan took a forfeit at 160 and Ethan Person took a forfeit at 120.

Shell Lake’s Tyler Schunk was a forfeit winner at 126 pounds. Blake Flach and Seth Symond took forfeits at 182 and 220 pounds.

There was only one contested match in Cornell-Gilman’s 36-12 win over Turtle Lake-Clayton. Braeden Person was down by five at one point in the 138-pound match, but he rallied and pinned Damon Galatoswitsch. Ethan Person, Kalley Krizan, Julian Krizan, Blodgett and Olson all won by forfeit.

The Wolfpack forfeited to Mason Quade at 113 and Skyler Findley at 220.

By matching up Thursday, the Jan. 9 dual between Cornell-Gilman and Turtle Lake-Clayton is now off the schedule.