FOUR CROOKSTON PIRATE WRESTLERS ADVANCE AT 41-TEAM BIG BEAR TOURNAMENT

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team had four wrestlers advance to the second day of the 41-team Big Bear Wrestling Classic hosted in Cass Lake, Minnesota. Carter Coauette was the lone Pirate to reach the semifinals, while Ethan Bowman, Zach Brown, and Ethan Boll will all compete in the wrestlebacks. At the conclusion of day one, the Pirates sit in 16th place with 58.0 points. LPGE-Browerville leads the tournament with 119.0 points, 20 points clear of second-place Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa.

Wrestlers advancing to Saturday
Carter Coauette – 
Carter Coauette won each of his first three matches advancing to Saturday’s semifinals at 106-pounds. Coauette started the day with back-to-back pins over wrestlers from BGMR and Verndale. In his quarterfinals match, Coauette defeated David Revering of Verndale to reach the semifinals. Coauette will wrestle Marshall Larson of Aitkin in the semifinals on Saturday. “Carter just had an outstanding day and kind of a breakout performance for him at the varsity level,” said Crookston head coach Wes Hanson. “He’s a tough kid, and we’ve known that, but he really showed that today. He competed hard and really wrestled well at all positions. I thought his mental toughness on the mat was really what was shining. He had some pretty darn good technique as well.”

Ethan Bowman –
Ethan Bowman started his day with a win of Jayce Ross from Deer River via pin 5:04 into the match. Bowman advanced to the quarterfinals, where he defeated Deagen Captain from Verndale 12-10 in a sudden-victory. Bowman lost his quarterfinal match 15-7 and will face Dallas Walton in the wrestlebacks on Saturday. “(Ethan Bowman) wrestled very well,” said Hanson. “He wrestled some really good kids, and in his second match of the day, he was actually trailing 7-1, but was able to rally back. He was trailing 9-5 to start the third period. Ethan was in the top position, and he was able to lock up a cradle and close the gap to 9-8. With 30-seconds left, he gave the kid an escape, and then Ethan went and got a takedown to force overtime. In overtime, Ethan took the kid down on his back to earn the takedown and some bonus points (towards the team score). That was a great win there.”

Zach Brown – 
Zach Brown started his Big Bear Classic with back-to-back pins against wrestlers from Walker-Hackensack-Akeley and Detroit Lakes. In the quarterfinals, Brown lost to Jayden Mclearaen of Big Lake 6-5. Brown will face Caleb Ruhl from Pequot Lakes in the wrestlebacks on Saturday. “It’s tough,” explained Hanson. “Zach wrestled a couple of matches where he was able to get the takedowns. In his quarterfinal match, we were trailing, and (Caleb Ruhl) had good defense on our attacks. We had a couple of scoring opportunities that slipped away from us. There was one call on the edge of the mat that didn’t go our way, but at the end of the day, we can’t leave it up to the refs. It was a tough loss, but we’re looking for Zach to bounce back and get third (place) tomorrow.”

Ethan Boll – 
Ethan Boll earned a pin in his first match of the day defeating Nolan Mann from Detroit Lakes in 3:13. In Boll’s second-round match the freshman defeated Dom Adams of Mora 4-1. Boll lost his quarterfinal bout against Tyson Meyer of Minnewaska 9-4 and now faces Zane Swanson of Otter Tail Central in the wrestlebacks on Saturday. “Ethan is wrestling well,” added Hanson. “We need him to make sure he stays very offensive and fires off a lot of attacks. He’s got some great offense and, he’s at his best when he’s using that offense and really trying to score. His quarterfinal match was against a returning state champion and #1 ranked kid in the state. Ethan was in that match all the way, so he gave him everything he can handle. It was a good match for Ethan and now he just needs to find a way to be able to score against the best guys.”

Day two of the Big Bear Classic begins at 11 A.M. on Saturday from Cass Lake beginning with the wrestlebacks before continuing to the medal rounds.
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Nolan Dans –
Nolan Dans started his day quickly with a pin in just 46-seconds. In the second round, Dans was pinned by Garret Eiynck of Mahnomen-Waubun in 1:13. Dans lost to Derrick Wegscheid of New York Mills 11-9 in the wrestlebacks. “Nolan had a great win in that first round,” explained Hanson. “He ran into a really tough kid in that second match. The match that eliminated him was a great contest. Nolan was actually leading in that match 9-7 with 11-seconds left, so he was right in that one. He was in a position to win the match, but it slipped away. We’ve learned from it already, and there were a few things we could’ve done differently to help us advance in that situation.”

Cameron Weiland –
Cameron Weiland lost his first match of the day but managed to continue competing for four more matches before picking up his second defeat. After Weiland’s initial loss, he responded by pinning three straight opponents to reach the third round of the consolation bracket where he was defeated by Tristian Lang of Hutchinson by pin in 2:40. “Cameron had a match where he was losing the whole match,” explained Hanson. “All of a sudden, it was 7-6, and Cameron got a takedown to his back to pick up a pin, and there were a lot of highlights today, but that was one for us.”

Braxton Volker –
Braxton Volker began his day with a first-round win over Jayson Young from Wadena-Deer Creek by pin in 1:36. After Volker lost his second-round match he defeated Tegan Larson of Fosston-Bagley by a pin in 0:30 in the consolation bracket. Volker was defeated by Tucker Hass from Mora in the third-round of the consolation bracket. “Braxton was very aggressive and scoring points in all of his matches,” added Hanson. “That’s what we like to see. He’s just got to be careful to not get caught out of position. As he gets more aggressive, he’s still got to keep things under control and, that’s one of the things we’re working on.”

Cameron Hulst – 
After losing his first match of the day by pin, Cameron Hulst won his first match in the consolation bracket by pinning Will Olson from Mahnomen-Waubun in 1:52. Hulst lost by pin against Hank Tellers of United North Central in 0:56 in the second round of the consolation bracket. “In Cameron’s match that he won, he did a great job in the top position,” said Hanson. “He went to a power-half and was able to get the pin. In the match that knocked him out of the tournament, it was a close contest. I think Cam maybe got a little frustrated within that match, and that can make it hard to be sharp with your focus and technique.”

Cade Coauette –
Cade Coauette wrestled hard in both matches but a pin against Cael Sjodin of Mora ended his day in the consolation bracket’s first-round. “Cade had a good week of practice leading up to it,” mentioned Hanson. “We were excited for him to compete at 145-pounds, but it was just tough out there today. It’s a tough tournament.”

Hunter Knutson –
Hunter Knutson lost his opening match by pin before bouncing back to defeat Weston Marx of Nash-Kee-Greenway by pin in just 27-seconds in the first round of the consolation bracket. Tate Hoffarth from Albany defeated Knutson in the second round 7-0. “In a 41-team field, the team race is important to us, so for Hunter to win a match and get us some bonus points was huge. Every point matters, he contributed and worked hard out there.”

Hunter Kresl –
Hunter Kresl received a tough draw at 170-pounds and was pinned in both of his matches against two of the top wrestlers in the event. “Hunter is a young guy at an upper weight class, it’s a tough tournament for that,” added Hanson.

Layten Fuentes –
Layten Fuentes competed at 195-pounds against some top competition in Minnesota and was pinned in both of his matches. “Leyton learned a lot from just being here,” noted Hanson. “I know he’s enjoying himself, and hopefully, we can find a few takeaways.”

“We wrestled well,” summarized Hanson. “We were on a hot-streak in the middle of the day, and we got the big win out of Carter (Coauette), and I was hoping to get a couple more that round, but it didn’t go our way. We’ve still got a few guys alive, we’ve got good mat time in. We saw some things that we’ve been working on recently implemented. As a coach, I would say it was a successful day.”

After the conclusion of the Big Bear Classic on Saturday, Crookston returns to the mats for their third straight tournament when the Pirates travel to the Fargo Dome to compete in the Rumble on the Red beginning at 9 AM on Friday, December 27.