Gilman’s Person, Duellman lead Wolfpack as team’s upperclassmen

WOLFPACK WRESTLING PREVIEW

Quality over quantity is a popular cliché in many areas, especially in sports, but it is one that fits the Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestling co-op.

Numbers are again a challenge for the Wolfpack, who started the new season with four boys. Three of them, however, are coming off winning seasons in 202122. That includes junior Troy Duellman, who ended his sophomore season wrestling in the WIAA Division 3 state tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Though individual goals will again outweigh team accolades in most cases once again, veteran head coach Greg Sonnentag is excited about the guys he has.

“Team strengths are experience and high expectations,” Sonnentag said. “I bring back three wrestlers that had successful seasons last year and are hungry for more. They understand the system and the expectations and are pushing each other in practice thus far. Our one newcomer is relatively new to the sport, but he is motivated and expects a lot from himself.”

The Wolfpack will get the 2022-23 season started at Saturday’s Barron Invitational, which is set to start at 9:30 a.m. The team is scheduled to compete in a Lakeland Conference triangular at Clear Lake on Dec. 15, with Shell Lake being the third team.

Duellman and senior Braeden Person, both from Gilman, are the upperclassmen leaders of the group.

“Troy is a returning state qualifier,” Sonnentag said. “He went 32-13 last season and placed third at sectionals at 145 pound. He is a vocal leader in the room.

“Braeden is coming off a great season,” Sonnentag said. “He was a Lakeland Conference champion and finished the season with a 26-14 record. Braeden leads by example and is always pushing his teammates as he keeps a high pace in practice.”

Both were named to the All-Lakeland Conference team after last season. Person won his conference championship at 152 pounds, beating Shell Lake’s Brockton Naessen 5-2 in the title match. His season ended with a fourth-place finish at the Cadott regional.

Duellman placed second in the conference at 145 pounds, falling to Clear Lake standout Tyler Sunday in the final. He was the regional champion at that weight, shutting out two opponents during the tournament in Cadott and qualified for state by placing third at the Clear Lake sectional with two pins in the consolation side of the bracket and close losses to state qualifiers Griffin Marko of St. Croix Falls and Sunday. Marko beat Duellman at state in a 5-0 decision. Sophomore Preston Fredrickson of Cornell is back after an 18-11 solid first season at 126 pounds. “Preston greatly improved both his skill and confidence on the mat last season,” Sonnentag said. “He finished 18-11 last year and looks to improve on that performance.” Fredrickson placed third in last winter’s Lakeland Conference tournament, beating Bruce’s Kyle Whitcome and Shell Lake’s Noah Lauterbach after a semifinal loss to Turtle Lake-Clayton’s Mason Quade and he was third at the Cadott regional, beating Glenwood City’s Logan McVeigh in the third-place match. The newcomer is freshman Anthony Schofield of Cornell. “Anthony had his first wrestling experience last year in eighth grade,” Sonnentag said. “He excelled and expects to come in and compete well on the varsity mat this season around 195 or 220 pounds.”

The Wolfpack is slated to return to all of the recent tournaments the team has been attending, including the Auburndale, Cadott, Ladysmith and St. Croix Falls meets along with the two-day Northern Badger Invite over the holidays in River Falls.

Mid-week competition will feature a series of Lakeland Conference triangulars as well as a multi-team meet hosted by Abbotsford-Colby on Dec. 22, all of which are aimed to give wrestlers as many matches as possible in an age of dwindling roster sizes in northern Wisconsin’s small schools. Shell Lake is scheduled to host this year’s Lakeland Conference tournament on Feb. 4.

The WIAA Division 3 post-season tournament looks a little different this year with “super regionals” now taking place on Feb. 11. These tournaments essentially combine what used to be two regionals into one competition and will send four wrestlers on to the sectional meet in each weight class. However, only the top three finishers in each weight class still will advance to state out of the sectional meets.

The Wolfpack has been assigned to Edgar for both the super regional and sectional meets.

“We are always looking to improve our numbers here in the program but we have a great few,” Sonnentag said. “We expect to win a lot of matches this year and place high as individuals at tournaments. It’s a possibility we can get all four of our boys on to sectionals. I think that has to be our goal. Anything can happen once we get there.”