last year’s odd COVID-altered season ….
last year’s odd COVID-altered season where the Wolfpack combined with Turtle Lake-Clayton to field a five-man squad for dual meets against other area teams or co-ops in a quest to get matches in.
Krizan and Duellman were named to the 2020-21 post-season All-Lakeland Conference team at season’s end and advanced to WIAA Division 3 sectional competition at St. Croix Falls. Krizan, the 170-pound regional champion, was officially credited with a 12-2 record after taking fifth in the sectional meet, while Duellman was the regional runner-up and credited with an 11-5 mark after he took fifth at the sectional at 132 pounds. Person was credited with a 4-6 record after he took third at 138 pounds in the regional meet held at Cornell. Sonnentag said individually, the team expects to have a successful season. “Last year we could not win a dual meet with only three boys wrestling,” he said. “We did win a majority of our individual matches with a 17-7 record within the conference during our regular season of ‘offi cial’ varsity matches.” Krizan, an All-State player in eight-man football the past two seasons for Gilman, has successfully turned into an aggressive, physical wrestler in his first three years. He went from a fourth-place finisher in the Lakeland Conference as a freshman to a conference champion at 152 pounds as a sophomore and certainly would have contended for a title last year had there been a league tournament.
Person was 12-15 and the conference runner-up at 138 pounds as a freshman. He combines quickness and strength for his success.
Not only did Duellman collect 11 wins as a freshman, he held his own against state qualifiers like Taeden Nichols of the Luck Co-op and Dominic Leintz of Clear Lake and All-Lakeland Conference wrestlers like Shane Larson and Tyler Sunday of Clear Lake in his losses.
Fredrickson will give the Wolfpack a competitor in the lighter weights. Blodgett competed primarily at 145 pounds two years ago. She will be eligible to wrestle in the WIAA’s inaugural open girls state championship meet set for Jan. 29 in La Crosse.
“Our limited numbers is both our weakness and our strength this year,” Sonnentag said. “We do have some athletes around the same weights who can push each other. We can really give these wrestlers attention with one on one due to the low numbers. It is unfortunate that we can’t rotate partners for live wrestling like some other programs are able to do.”
The Wolfpack wrestlers should get plenty of opportunities for matches with the return of Saturday invitationals, which were off-limits due to last year’s restrictions. The Wolfpack is slated to return to all of the recent tournaments the team had been attending, including this Saturday’s season-opening Barron Invitational. Auburndale, Cadott, Ladysmith and St. Croix Falls meets also return to the schedule along with the two-day Northern Badger Invite over the holidays in River Falls.
As for the duals, Lakeland Conference teams have scheduled a series of Thursday- night quads to help get their kids some matches and a chance to wrestle in team settings. The Wolfpack will host one of those quads on Jan. 20.
The conference meet is set for Feb. 5 and will be hosted in Frederic by the Luck Co-op.
The Wolfpack will start the post-season in a seven-team Division 3 regional at Cadott that includes the host Hornets, Boyceville, Glenwood City, Spring Valley- Elmwood, Stanley-Boyd and Thorp/ Owen-Withee. Top-two finishes there will send wrestlers to the St. Croix Falls sectional on Feb. 19. The state tournament is back in Madison this year after a year away.
“I expect these kids to compete hard,” Sonnentag said. “Similar to last year, we should win a lot of individual matches. Hopefully, we can stay healthy and get valuable mat time to help prepare our wrestlers for the individual tournament series. We plan to have someone taking a trip south to compete the last weekend of February. We missed the experience last year.”
