Wolfpack’s Krizan gets exciting win at Clear Lake

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

Three wrestling programs thin on numbers made things work to create a Lakeland Conference dual meet on Thursday night.

The Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe Wolfpack joined forces with Turtle Lake-Clayton to create a team of six wrestlers that competed at Clear Lake, a team that normally has higher numbers but didn’t have everyone available for that night.

The Warriors used a pin, a technical fall, two forfeits and a decision to outscore the co-op group 26-9.

Three of the Wolfpack’s wrestlers got mat time in the varsity dual. Julian Krizan got the lone win and he did it in dramatic fashion, taking the 182-pound match with Lukas Paulson 3-2.

Krizan, the Lakeland Conference champion last year at 152 pounds, and Paulson, the runner-up at 145, locked up in an even battle. Paulson took a 2-0 lead with a firstperiod takedown. After a scoreless second period, Krizan got a third-period escape and nearly got control of Paulson’s legs, but he did not get credit for the reversal. In the final seconds, while still leading 2-1 Paulson took a shot and slipped off Krizan, who quickly pounced on Paulson’s hips and got the winning takedown as time expired.

Freshman Troy Duellman made his varsity debut and wrestled well, but an early takedown was the difference in a 2-0 loss to Shane Larson in the 138-pound match.

Sophomore Braeden Person ran up against a tough customer in Clear Lake freshman Tyler Sunday, who rode a big second period to a 19-2 technical fall.

Turtle Lake-Clayton’s Parker Lytle pinned Blake Espeseth in the first period of the 170-pound match. A state qualifier a year ago, Dominic Leintz pinned Turtle Lake-Clayton’s defending conference champion Mason Quade in 1:58 at 132 pounds. Another of Clear Lake’s state qualifiers, Matt Anderson, took a forfeit at 152 pounds as did Steven Wood at 120.

Once the varsity meet was done, four exhibition matches took place. Anderson took a 4-1 second-period lead before pinning Krizan in 2:45. Duellman lost 7-0 to Sunday and Person was down 6-0 before losing by injury default to Leintz. Quade pinned Clear Lake’s Blake Harris.