WOLFPACK WRESTLING - Angell wins season’s first tournament, going 4-0 at Barron Invite

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

Taydyn Angell is the clear leader this year in the Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestling program and he started his 2024-25 season that way, winning the 215-pound championship at the 18-team Barron Invitational.

Wrestling as the top seed in a 14-man bracket, Angell collected four pins to win the weight class title.

He started by pinning Brett Bartlett of the Luck Co-op in 1:27 and then took care of Josh Nutt, a senior from Phillips, in 2:45 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Angell pinned fifth-seeded Jackson Logghe, a senior from Glenwood City, in 2:29.

That put him in the finals against another notable young wrestler, Elliot Havlish of Osceola, a freshman who entered the championship match at 9-0. Angell pinned him in 2:51.

Angell scored 20 points to put the Wolfpack in 15th place in the team standings ahead of Rice Lake (6), Flambeau (5) and the Osseo-Fairchild Co-op (0). Glenwood City won the team title with 162 points, nine more than Hayward and 21 more than Osceola.

Two of the Wolfpack’s new wrestlers entered JV competition and did well.

Senior Lee Zagorski went 3-0 to win the eight-man bracket at 285 pounds. He pinned Glenwood City’s Andrew Yang in 23 seconds, pinned Hayward-Northwood’s Evan Boomgarden in 2:26 and pinned Glenwood City’s Wyatt Dreyling in 2:27.

Sophomore Lucas Halida went 3-1 to take second in a five-man round-robin pool at 132 pounds. He started by pinning Stanley-Boyd’s Blake Peterson in 2:46 and then dropped a 14-1 major decision to champion Corey Strong of Glenwood City. Halida pinned Sam Rockensock of the Luck Co-op in 2:01 and third-place finisher Kyle Pahl of Stanley-Boyd in 3:35.

The Wolfpack’s two female wrestlers also got their taste of high school competition.

At 120 pounds, Aspen Person placed fifth with a 2-1 record. She was pinned by eventual champion Journee Wood of Phillips but rebounded with a pin in 2:52 over Unity’s Alyssa Chance and a pin in 1:51 over Stanley-Boyd’s Ziva Blair in the fifth-place bout.

In a round-robin pool at 152 pounds, Kaitlyn Madlon went 0-4, losing three matches by pin and an 18-11 decision in her first match against Rice Lake’s Shyanna Sharpley.

The Wolfpack heads to the Auburndale Invitational this Saturday. Wrestling starts at 10 a.m. The Northern Badger Wrestling Classic at River Falls is set for Dec. 27-28.