LAKELAND CONFERENCE WRESTLING - Top three finishes for all three Wolfpack wrestlers at conference

LAKELAND CONFERENCE WRESTLING

All three Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe entrants ended their Saturday on the awards podium after top-three finishes in the Lakeland Conference wrestling championships hosted by Turtle Lake-Clayton.

Troy Duellman and Taydyn Angell competed in the championship matches in their respective weight classes and fell short of claiming conference titles.

For the third straight season, Duellman, a senior, ran into his nemesis from Clear Lake, Tyler Sunday, in the finals. Duellman and Sunday waged a defensive battle in Saturday’s match with Sunday maintaining his mastery over Duellman with a 3-1 win in the 157-pound final. Sunday improved to 35-1 on the season, while Duellman enters post-season competition at 29-4, with two of those losses coming to Sunday.

Duellman received a quarterfinal bye in the six-man bracket Saturday as the second seed and won his semifinal match by pin over junior Levi King of the Luck Co-op (10-15) in a time of 1:33.

In the four-man 215-pound bracket, Angell, a freshman, pinned Unity sophomore Caleb Johnson (12-27) in a time of 2:33 in the semifinals to reach a championship match with Luck Co-op senior Gavin Rossow. Rossow improved to 26-6 with a 13-6 decision over Angell, who fell to 28-8 in his solid first season at the varsity level.

At 144 pounds, Wolfpack freshman Kadyn Jones (14-17) bumped up a weight class and drew the third seed out of five entrants and earned a bye into the semifinals. There, he was pinned by Unity senior Gavin Holden (27-12). Jones rallied from there, pinned Clear Lake’s Brynn Ellison (3 5) in 38 seconds and freshman Gary Hochstetler (3-23) of the Luck Co-op in 1:26 to earn third place. Shell Lake junior Briar Naglosky (24-9) pinned Holden in 5:09 in the championship.

The Luck Co-op won the tournament championship with 214 points, comfortably outscoring defending champion Clear Lake, who scored 172.5 points. Shell Lake was third with 147.5 points, followed by Unity (134) and Turtle Lake-Clayton (121.5). The Wolfpack placed sixth with 50 points, followed by Bruce (37) and Flambeau (29).

The post-season starts Saturday with the Wolfpack being one of 13 teams in the WIAA Division 3 Auburndale regional tournament. Competition is set to start at 10 a.m. with the top four finishers in each weight class advancing to the Edgar sectional on Feb. 17. The top two teams will head to the Cadott team sectional on Tuesday. Stratford, Cadott, Auburndale and Clear Lake are among the top teams that will be at Saturday’s regional.