Person, Duellman secure spots on All-Lakeland wrestling team

ALL-LAKELAND CONFERENCE WRESTLING

Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestlers Braeden Person and Troy Duellman were named to the 16-man All-Lakeland Conference wrestling team for the 2021-22 season.

Duellman, a sophomore, was named to the squad for the second straight season. Person, a junior, makes his first appearance on the list. The Lakeland Conference held its season-ending tournament on Feb. 5, hosted by the Luck Co-op, who also won the meet. The league’s eight teams, most of whom aren’t able to field a full lineup, also competed in a series of quads throughout the regular season to give their wrestlers some dual meets and additional matches. The Wolfpack had just three wrestlers for most of their 2021-22 season. Duellman and Person are Gilman students, while 126-pounder Preston Fredrickson, a freshman from Cornell joined them this season.

Person was the 152-pound champion in the Lakeland Conference tournament, pinning Bruce’s Johnny Jacobs in 1:41 in the semifinals and beating Brockton Naessen of Shell Lake 5-2 in the championship. He went 26-14 overall this season and finished third at the WIAA Division 3 Cadott regional in the 152-pound weight class.

In the conference duals, Person went 9-2 with his only losses coming with pins by Clear Lake’s state qualifiers Tyler Sunday and Dominic Leintz. He beat Naessen 8-5 in an ultimate tiebreaker in one of his most exciting matches of the season, edged Unity’s Connor Eichelt 2-1 and Luck’s Brandon Lucas in close matches and got pins over Jacobs, Shell Lake’s Joseph Harrington, Unity’s Jack Ross and Bruce’s Keven Anderson. He also got two forfeit wins.

Duellman was the 145-pound runnerup in the Lakeland Conference tournament, beating Lucas 8-1 in the semifinals and falling to Sunday in 5:43 in the final.

In the four conference meets the Wolfpack competed in, Duellman took part in three of them and posted an 8-1 record with his only loss coming by pin to the Luck Co-op’s Taedon Nichols, who was named the Lakeland Conference Wrestler of the Year after going 42-0 through the regular season, winning the league’s 138-pound title and eventually finishing 52-2 and taking fourth in the Division 2 state tournament at 138 pounds.

Duellman also finished the year at the state tournament, losing his only Division 3 match at 145 pounds. He finished 32-13, won a regional title and took third at the St. Croix Falls sectional.

Of Duellman’s wins in the conference duals, five came by pin over Jacobs, Shell Lake’s Carter Allen and Trevor Hanson, Unity’s David Whitlock and Unity’s Ashten Christensen. He was a 7-1 winner over Clear Lake’s Cayden Paulson and he earned two forfeits.

Clear Lake leads the All-Lakeland list with five representatives. The Wolfpack, Luck Co-op, Shell Lake, Unity and Turtle Lake-Clayton had two representatives each and Bruce had one.

Besides Duellman and Nichols, Unity’s Mike Nelson reached the Division 3 285-pound final at state, Sunday placed fourth at 145 pounds, Clear Lake’s Mitchell Anderson placed fifth at 126 pounds, Leintz was fifth at 138 pounds and Unity’s Ethan Feist went 1-2 at 220 pounds.