Duellman, Person are finalists at Ladysmith Invite

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe’s wrestling leaders made the championship matches of their brackets Saturday and the Wolfpack’s two younger wrestlers also won placement matches at the 21-team Ladysmith Invitational.

Braeden Person and Troy Duellman both faced top-ranked wrestlers in the state in their championship matches and wound up with second-place finishes. Preston Fredrickson went 3-1 to place fifth at 132 pounds and Anthony Schofield went 1-2 for the day and took 11th at 220 pounds.

It all added up to 133 points and a 16thplace finish for the Wolfpack, 29 points behind 15th-place Chequamegon and ahead of Athens (112), Rice Lake (111), Bruce (79), Flambeau (52) and McDonell Catholic Central (50).

Mineral Point, typically a strong Division 3 program, won the tournament with 480 points, beating challengers Cadott (430), Phillips (332), Reedsville (324) and Ladysmith (314).

Wrestling at 145 pounds for the first time this year, Duellman (13-2) opened with a pin in 3:34 over Ladysmith’s Austin Schultz and then pinned Eau Claire Memorial’s Xander Hebert in 2:36 to reach the semifinals. There, he earned a 6-0 win over Ayden Sebo of Reedsville (1610) to set up a championship bout with Mineral Point’s Tarrin Riley.

Riley won a tough match 4-0 to improve to 31-4 for the year. Duellman is a top-five ranked wrestler at 152 pounds in Division 3. That weight class’s ranking leader is Cadott’s Tristan Drier, who pinned Person (18-7) in 4:39 in the title bout Saturday. Drier improved to 22-2. Person, however, recorded three wins to get to that match, pinning Cameron’s Elliot Nichols in 43 seconds, edging Ladysmith’s Carter Soltis in a 5-3 decision and outscoring Reedsville’s Carson Taddy (18-10) in a 9-5 decision.

Fredrickson sits at 11-11 for the year after his strong day. He started by pinning Black River Falls freshman Gavin Garcia in 3:02, but then lost his quarterfinal match by pin to Ladysmith’s Clayton Roscoe in 2:17. Fredrickson pinned Ladysmith’s Jackson Summerfield in 1:47 in his consolation semifinal and then pinned Reedsville’s Ethyn Sebo in 2:31 in the fifth-place match.

Schofield (9-12) lost his opener by pin in 2:52 to Darrick Bonga of Chequamegon. After a loss by pin in 3:10 to Mc-Donell’s Wyatt Pelkey, Schofield finished with a win by pin in 4:30 over Marathon’s Christian Pintor.

In a schedule change, the Wolfpack is scheduled to wrestle at the Phillips Quad tonight, Thursday, along with Flambeau and Rhinelander. Wrestling starts at 5:30 p.m. The team is at the St. Croix Falls Invitational Saturday and will host a Lakeland Conference double-dual with the Luck Co-op and Unity at 6 p.m. on Jan. 26.