WOLFPACK WRESTLING - Angell reaches another tourney final; Wolfpack 0-2 in quad

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

It’s now on to the key month of February for the Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestling team, which placed 15th in the team standings Saturday at the St. Croix Falls Wrestling Classic, the final invite on the team’s schedule before the Feb. 7 Lakeland Conference tournament.

Taydyn Angell was again the Wolfpack’s headliner as he reached the 215-pound championship match, where he faced Hudson’s Dawson Clymer, a 2024 WIAA Division 1 state qualifier at 175 pounds.

Clymer improved to 36-3 for this season with a 16-3 major decision over Angell, who is now 30-2. To get to the final, Angell won three matches. First, he pinned Cumberland’s Blade Nybeck in 1:03. Next was a 17-0 win by technical fall in the quarterfinals over Jakob Soback of Spencer-Columbus. Takedowns with near falls in the first and third periods put that match away.

Joe Petherbridge, a 22-10 senior from St. Croix Falls took Angell the full six minutes in the semifinals, but Angell came away a 7-1 winner with a takedown and two-point near fall in the second period providing most of the margin of victory.

Wolfpack senior Preston Fredrickson finished eighth in the 150-pound bracket. His win for the day came in his first consolation match when he outscored 1913 Connor Weber of St. Croix Falls 11-10. Fredrickson (6-8) got a takedown with 10 seconds left in the second period to take an 8-6 lead and he extended that lead to 10-6 with a reversal to start the third. Weber got a reversal with 40 seconds left and added a two-point near fall to tie it, but Fredrickson’s escape with 22 seconds left won it.

Fredrickson was pinned by Prescott’s Steven Atherton in 1:37 to get sent to the seventh-place match, where he lost in overtime 7-4 to 21-12 Owen Anderson of Turtle Lake-Clayton. It was the second time in three days those two wrestlers went into overtime. Fredrickson led 4-1, but Anderson got a third-period takedown to tie and got the winning takedown early in the one-minute sudden-victory period. Fredrickson was pinned in 2:48 in his first match of the day by Carter Othoudt of Princeton, Minn.

At 285 pounds, Lee Zagorski won his first match, pinning Victor Avila-Gonzalez of Cumberland in 3:55. Losses by pin to 23-13 Cain Casarez of Turtle Lake-Clayton in 1:01 and to 17-10 Ethan Gibeault of Tomahawk in 51 seconds eliminated Zagorski.

At 132 pounds, Lucas Halida was pinned in 1:30 by Asa Schwarzbauer of Pine City, Minn. and was pinned in 1:49 by Kort Fleck of St. Croix Falls.

Sawyer Winger went 1-1 in his threeman 150-pound bracket of JV competition. He was pinned in 5:59 by Cumberland’s Jaeger Miller and he pinned Princteon’s Ike Andrews in 1:25.

The Wolfpack scored 28 points to finish ahead of Prescott (14.5), Flambeau (6.5) and Bruce (0). St. Croix Falls won the tournament with 195.5 points, outscoring River Falls (171.5), Cumberland (157.5), Hudson (148.5) and Glenwood City (135).

The St. Croix Falls Girls Wrestling Classic was held Friday.

The Wolfpack’s Kaitlyn Madlon placed fourth at 152 pounds. She got a quarterfinal pin over Autumn Steffen of St. Croix Falls in 3:28 but then got pinned by eventual champion Audrey Rogotzke of Stillwater, Minn. in the semifinals in 21 seconds. Charlie Heath of Black River Falls pinned Madlon in 1:10 in the thirdplace bout. Aspen Person won by medical forfeit over Ladysmith’s Briley Burmeister in the 114-pound preliminaries and then went to overtime with Osceola’s Taneau Campeau. A four-point second-period near fall got Person into a 5-5 tie with Campeau, but Campeau’s escape won it after neither wrestler scored in the third period, the one-minute overtime and the first 30second tiebreaker period.

Person came back with a pin in 5:09 over Unity’s Layla McGowan, but she was eliminated with an 8-3 loss to Lily Kern of Prescott.

The girls combined to score 18 points and put the Wolfpack in 27th place out of 36 squads in the team standings. Hudson edged Stillwater, Minn. 137.5-135 for the team title, while Merrill (122) was third.

Home quad

In a Lakeland Conference quad held in Gilman Thursday, the Wolfpack got in a handful of contested matches in losses to Clear Lake and Turtle Lake-Clayton.

In the team’s first dual against Clear Lake, Angell and Zagorski earned forfeit wins at 215 and 285 pounds to account for the Wolfpack’s scoring in a 53-12 loss.

At 132 pounds, Brennon Colbeth was in control throughout as he earned a 17-1 technical fall over Halida that ended at the 4:22 mark. At 150 pounds, Cayden Paulson led Fredrickson before getting a pin at 3:11. Magnum Moggo pinned Winger in 1:13 at 157 pounds. Clear Lake got forfeit wins at 106, 113, 120, 126, 144 and 175 pounds. Person was pinned in 1:21 by Cheyanne Marette in a girls match.

Turtle Lake-Clayton defeated the Wolfpack 48-6. Angell took the Wolfpack’s win by forfeit. There were two good matches, however.

At 150 points, Fredrickson and Anderson went through the overtime tiebreaker process before Anderson emerged as a 10-9 winner. Fredrickson got the match’s first takedown in a first period that ended in a 4-4 tie. Down 5-4 to start the third, Fredrickson got an escape to tie it and a takedown with 25 seconds left to take an 8-5 lead. Anderson escaped and got a takedown in the last 10 seconds, but Fredrickson was credited with an escape as time expired to send the bout to overtime tied 9-9.

The wrestlers went through a scoreless one-minute overtime period. Riding in the next 30-second period, Fredrickson was caught with locked hands, giving Anderson a point. Needing an escape to tie it in the next 30 seconds, Fredrickson was unable to get out of Anderson’s control.

At 132 pounds, Halida trailed Luke Popenhagen 5-0 to start the third period but a takedown 55 seconds in put him back in the match at 5-3. That was as close as he got as a reversal sealed Popenhagen’s 7-3 win. Winger was pinned in 1:00 by Brandon Wright at 157 pounds.

The Wolfpack forfeited matches at 113, 120, 165, 175 and 190 pounds.

Clear Lake and Turtle Lake-Clayton won duals over Bruce, who only brought two wrestlers to the meet.

The Wolfpack finished 2-5 in Lakeland Conference duals. The conference meet Feb. 8 starts at 10 a.m.

Wolfpack wrestler Sawyer Winger tries to escape from Clear Lake’s Magnum Moggo during their 157-pound match Thursday in Gilman. Moggo won by pin. GINNA YOUNG/COURIER SENTINEL

Gilman’s Joey Syryczuk passes the basketball ahead to Logan Halida for an easy transition basket and a quick 8-0 lead during Tuesday’s game with Greenwood. The Pirates won 59-42 for their first Eastern Cloverbelt Conference win of the season. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS