Krizan gets two pins to claim Lakeland Conference’s 152-pound title

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

Julian Krizan pinned both of his opponents to claim his first Lakeland Conference championship and Braeden and Ethan Person both earned second-place finish for the Cornell-Gilman Wolfpack during Saturday’s league meet hosted by Flambeau.

With five available wrestlers, the Wolfpack placed sixth in the eight-team meet with 64 points, beating Turtle Lake-Clayton (61) and Bruce (46). The Luck-Frederic- Grantsburg Siren Co-op easily had the most wrestlers in the meet with 12 and, as expected, won the team championship with 187.5 points. With eight wrestlers, Clear Lake took second with 129.5 points over Unity (120), Shell Lake (102) and Flambeau (68).

With the departures of St. Croix Falls and Cameron to the Heart O’ North Con- ference, total entrants in the Lakeland Conference meet dwindled to 48 with four weight classes having just two wrestlers.

Krizan, a sophomore, won the 152-pound weight class, which had five wrestlers. Krizan (17-10) was the top seed and took care of business, pinning Flambeau freshman Tristan Reich (3-5) in 1:17 in the semifinals and Unity junior Donovan Johnson (14-12) in 3:10 in the championship match.

Sophomore Logan Czech (11-16) of the Luck Co-op pinned Reich in 1:31 to place third.

Krizan improved from his fourthplace finish a year ago at 152 pounds.

Braeden Person, a freshman, battled to second place at 138 pounds, which was one of three brackets to feature a tournament- high six wrestlers.

Person (12-13) needed just 1:17 to pin Flambeau freshman Harold Garcia (223) in the opening round and then got a big 4-1 win over Flambeau junior Nathan Rymarkiewicz (15-16) in the semifinals to set up a championship match with 26-7 senior Landyn Johnson of the Luck Co-op. Johnson pinned Person in 3:49 to take the title. Johnson lost last year’s 132-pound title match to then Wolfpack senior Sam Pickerign 3-1.

Senior Ethan Person wrestled in a twoman competition at 113 pounds. Competing for the title in his only match of the day, Person (19-11) was pinned by the Division 3’s fourth-ranked 113-pounder, freshman Dominic Leintz of Clear Lake (35-1) in 1:56.

Freshman Kalley Krizan (3-13) took fourth at 132 pounds. In the semifinals, she was pinned in 59 seconds by sixthranked Matt Anderson (27-7), who then won the title with a 14-2 major decision over Shell Lake’s Cody Swan (24-10). Unity’s Chevy Baxter (14-16) pinned Krizan in 2:16 in the third-place match.

Freshman Ali Blodgett (4-15) finished sixth at 145 pounds. She was pinned in the opening round by 22-15 sophomore Gavin Fredericks (22-15) of the Luck Coop. Unity’s David Whitlock (18-16) pinned her in 55 seconds in the consolation semifi nals and Flambeau’s Hayden Heath (1217) pinned her in 2:16 in the fifth-place bout. Turtle Lake-Clayton senior Damon Galatowitsch (11-6) won the bracket with a pin in 2:00 over Clear Lake’s Lukas Paulson (19-15) in the championship.

The Luck Co-op and Clear Lake both had four champions, Unity and Turtle Lake-Clayton had two apiece and the Wolfpack and Flambeau had one each.

Turtle Lake-Clayton had just four wrestlers. Flambeau had five, Bruce had six and Unity had seven.

Cornell-Gilman has its work cut out for itself this Saturday when it travels to the WIAA Division 3 Cadott regional. Wrestling starts at 10:30 a.m. and features the Wolfpack, third-ranked Stratford, fourth-ranked Cadott as well as Athens, Edgar, Marathon and Thorp. The top two wrestlers in each weight class advance to sectional competition Feb. 22 in Edgar. The top team goes to the team sectional Tuesday at Cumberland.