The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team’s Carter Coauette won both of his matches to win the Section Championship at 172 pounds, Jose Arriaga finished third place at 152 pounds, and Riley Helgeson finished fifth place at Heavyweight as the Pirates had three placers at the Section 8A Individual Wrestling Tournament held at the Crookston High School Gymnasium.
PIRATE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS-
CHAMPION – Carter Coauette (172 pounds)
There were only four wrestlers at 172 pounds, so that meant all four had a first-round bye.
In the semi-finals, Carter was taken down by Isaac Olson of BGMR and trailed 2-0 11 seconds into the match. Carter countered with an escape eight seconds later and followed with a takedown, and added two nearfall points for a 5-2 lead. In the second period, the wrestlers were both up to start, and Coauette had a takedown for a 7-2 lead. He gave up an escape two seconds later before getting another takedown and added four nearfall points for a 13-3 lead halfway through the period. Coauette gave up an escape and countered with a takedown and added three nearfall points to win by Tech Fall at 3:42 to advance to the championship.
Coauette started the championship match with a takedown 18 seconds in for a 2-0 lead. Four seconds later, Mayfield scored an escape to get within a 2-1 deficit. There was no scoring for the rest of the period. Coauette chose the bottom to start the second period and scored an escape eight seconds into the period, and followed with a takedown 19 seconds later for a 5-1 lead. Coauette gave up an escape with 51 seconds left and took a 5-2 lead into the third period. In the final period, Mayfield scored an escape halfway through the period to get within a 5-3 deficit, but Coauette countered with a takedown six seconds later and held on the rest of the way to win the Section 8A championship 7-3. Coauette won his third Section 8A Championship and will advance to his fourth state individual tournament of his career next weekend at the Excel Energy Center.
CLICK HERE to listen to Carter Coauette’s comments.
THIRD PLACE – Jose Arriaga (152 pounds)
Jose won his quarterfinal match by a pin as the second period ended to advance to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, Arriaga ran into the #1 seed, Tyler Moe of Frazee, and lost by a pin to go to the wrestlebacks. Arriaga took on Don Turner of Mahnomen/Waubun , got a takedown 50 seconds into the match, and turned it into a pin a few seconds later to advance to the third-place match.
In the third-place match, Jose continued his strong wrestling as he took on Jack Martin of Barnesville and started with a takedown, and that would be all the scoring in the period. In the second period, Jose got another takedown 10 seconds in for a 4-0 lead. Neither wrestler scored the rest of the period, and Arriaga took a 4-0 lead into the final period. Jose started with a takedown 13 seconds into the period for a 6-0 lead. He gave up an escape before getting another takedown for an 8-1 lead. Martin countered with an escape and takedown before Arriaga got an escape and a takedown to win the match 11-4 and a True Second match.
Arriaga wrestled #2 seed Zach Davidson in the True Second match and got behind 4-0 at the end of the first period. Davidson came out strong with a takedown at the beginning of the period and Arriaga lost by a pin at 3:12. Arriaga, who came into the tournament with four wins on the year, added three in the tournament for a total of seven and finished third place.
FIFTH PLACE – Riley Helgeson (Heavyweight)
Helgeson started the day with a first-round loss to Fertile-Beltrami’s Jack Leiser 4-1.
In the first round of wrestlebacks, Riley had a great bounce-back match as he got behind 2-0 early in the match, but he countered with a reversal with 1:12 left in the period and got a pin at 1:27.
In the consolation semi-finals, Helgeson took on #1 seed Kevin Dailey and scored two points on a takedown for a 2-0 lead. Daily countered with an escape, and Helgeson took a 2-1 lead into the second period. Helgeson started the second period with an escape, followed by a takedown for a 5-1 lead. Daily scored on another escape, and Helgeson took a 5-2 lead into the final period. In the third, Helgeson was awarded a stalling point before adding five points on a takedown and three nearfall points for a 10-2 lead with 55 seconds left in the match. Dailey scored two points on a reversal with 40 seconds left in the match. On the reversal, Dailey got Helgeson on his back and won the match by a pin with 25 seconds left in the match.
In the fifth-place match, Riley took on Jack Zitzow of Frazee and started with a takedown halfway through the period for a 2-0 lead. He gave up an escape with five seconds left for a 2-1 lead. Riley started the second period on the bottom and scored an escape, and followed with a takedown for a 5-1 lead going into the third period. In the final period, Zitzow started with a takedown before Helgeson got an escape and followed with a takedown for an 8-3 lead and held on to win by the same score to finish fifth place.
CLICK HERE to listen to Coach Rooney’s post-tournament comments.
114 POUNDS – Gabe Perala
Lost to Cooper Rife (UNC) by pin
Lost to Jack Lacroix (Fos/Bag) 14-3
Did not place
133 POUND – Jaron Knutson
Lost to Zach Hendrickson (UNC) by pin at 53 seconds
Lost to Blake Sonnenberg (Frazee) 8-2
Did not place
145 POUNDS – Lucas Perala
Lost to Bailey Peichel (Frazee) by pin at 5:07
Lost to Connor Lacy (MW) by pin at 3:56
Did not place
152 POUND – Jose Arriaga
Beat Creed Tollefson (Fer-Bel) by pin at 3:59
Lost to Tyler Moe (Frazee) by pin at 1:33
Beat Don Turner (MW) by pin at 1:09
Beat Jack Martin (Barnesville) 11-4 in 3rd place match
True Second – Lost to Zach Davidson (UNC) by pin at 3:12 for 3rd place
172 POUNDS – Carter Coauette
Bye
Beat Isaac Olson (BRMG) by Tech Fall at 3:43
CHAMPIONSHIP – Beat Preston Mayfield (Frazee) 7-3
189 POUND – Miles Corneille
Lost to Blake McMullen by pin at 1:30
Lost to Damion Hanson (BGMR) by pin 3:39
Did not place
HEAVYWEIGHT – Riley Helgeson
Lost to Jack Leiser (Fert-Bel) 4-1
Beat Justin Krueger by pin at 1:29
Lost to Kevin Dailey (UNC) by pin at 5:35
Beat Derek Zitzow (Frazee) 8-3 for 5th place
Section All-Academic team – (Must be a 10-12 grader and a 3.0 GPA or better)
Crookston – Gavyn Hlucny
Barnesville – Cameron Halverson
Fertile-Beltrami – Creed Tollefson
Fosston/Bagley – Zach Thompson, Aiden Wolfe, Ian Phrakonkham
Frazee – Preston Mayfield, Cade Nagel, Brady Borah, Tyler Moe, Jack Graham, Derek Zitzow
United North Central – Aaron Lake, Zach Davidson, Fordyce Johner, Cooper Rife
Academic Team Champion – Frazee (3.8 GPA)
Sportsmanship Award – Frazee
Head Coach of the Year – Jake Oyster (UNC)
Assistant Coach of the Year – Steve McMullen (MW)
