CROOKSTON PIRATE WRESTLERS BEAT UCB AND LOSE TO #9 TRF

The Crookston Pirate Wrestlers have taken on one of the most competitive schedules in their history, even with the CoVid!! “We been in more gyms that I’ve heard about but never been in until this year,” said Crookston head coach Wes Hanson. “Sometimes wrestling all these ranked teams is great for the competition, but also it can get frustrating when you’re wrestling a ranked guy twice in a night. But coming into our last week of the regular season, this schedule is getting us ready for the post-season.”
Tonight, Crookston was at home hosting United Clay-Becker (a coop of Lake Park-Audubon and Hawley) and the #9 rated team in Minnesota Class AA, Kenny Geiser’s Thief River Falls Prowlers. The Pirates defeated United Clay Becker with six pins and two forfeits for a 54-20 win.  The second match saw Thief River Falls show their strength with a 61-18 win over United Clay Becker, which set up the rubber match between Crookston and the Prowlers. Thief River Falls had six pins and one forfeit for a 46-31 win over the Pirates.

Crookston 54    United Clay-Becker-20
The Pirates started out winning the first four matches, two by pins and two close decisions. Freshman Evin Trudeau started it off with a pin in 46 seconds, followed by Nolan Dans defeating Taylor Johnson 8-6. Johnson was ranked ninth in Minnesota Class A polls, “That was a big win for Nolan,” said Coach Hanson, “He got that take down and wrestled a smart match throughout the six minutes for the decision. After United Clay Becker won a major decision to get on the board, the Pirates had pins from Cameron Weiland and Braxton Volker to take a 29-4 lead. “We do have some very good wrestlers in the lower weights,” said Hanson, “it’s nice to get off to that fast start, and then guys like Cade DeLeon wrestling a much bigger guy and was able to pin him early in the second period.” The Pirates would get a couple of forfeit wins for Ethan Boll and Greg Gonzalez to win the match 54-20. “It was a good win to start the night for us,” said Hanson.

Thief River Falls-46     Crookston-31
Crookston started the match off with a 14-2 loss for a major decision for Kiegan Hermanson over Evin Trudeau. “It was a loss, but I was really proud of Evin and the way he wrestled, didn’t get pinned, which saved us two points at that time,” said Hanson. The Pirates would win the next three matches with Dans getting a pin in the third period for his second win of the night, Zach Brown got another quick pin, this time at 27 seconds, and Ethan Bowman had a pin in 1:06, and Crookston had a lead of 18-4. “Nolan had a great night with two wins, as did Zach and Ethan did as well,” said Hanson, “as we’ve said before, we expect those guys to get us off to a good start.” This was when Thief River Falls flexed a little of their muscle, winning six of the next seven matches, five pins, and a forfeit!! “Thief River Falls has some very good wrestlers that wrestle a lot, a lot, and a lot of matches through the year, and you can see it in a lot of their wrestlers.” One of the pins was Griffin Lundeen at 138 pounds, who pinned Cameron Weiland in 1:32, and it was the 101st victory of Lundeen’s career, getting his 100th in the United Clay-Becker match. 101 wins as a FRESHMAN! “That is something,” said Hanson, “he is an outstanding wrestler, winning a lot of matches when he was in seventh grade and followed that again last year and continues that pattern this season. That is quite a feat as a freshman.”
Crookston’s Ethan Boll, a sophomore, is ranked second at 195 pounds in Class A, and his opponent tonight, Mason Iverson, a senior for the Prowlers, ranked 10th at 195 in Class A squared off. The match was Boll on the offensive for six minutes, and Iverson had to try and stay off his back for the six minutes. Boll racked up the takedowns, giving up three escapes, but was unable to pin Iverson. One of the Thief River Falls fans hollered to Iverson that Boll was getting tired as they started the third period! Not so, Boll continued to dominate and picked up the 14-3 win. “A good win for Ethan and going the full six minutes is good for him as well,” said Hanson. The Prowlers would get another pin at 220 to set up the last match of the night and the Pirates senior Greg Gonzalez taking on Colin Bruggeman of Thief River Falls. They came out, and it appeared Bruggeman came out to take Gonzalez down quickly, which didn’t work well when Gonzalez rolled through and had Bruggeman down on his back and Gonzalez, with his size and strength, leaned on Bruggeman until he got the slap of the pin just 43 seconds in for the fourth pin of the night for Crookston, but not enough as the Prowlers win 46-31.

The Pirates are now 19-8 in duals on the season and will be on the road for the last week of the regular season next week. Crookston will be at the Frazee Triangular on Thursday, March 4, where they will take on the Hornets and United North Central (Menahga and Sebeka). “Those will be two very big matches for us as far as the Section 8A Team Seeds will go,” said Hanson, “United North Central is undefeated in the Section, and Frazee is, well, Frazee! We can really help ourselves if we wrestle well on Thursday!” The Pirates will cap off the regular season at the Breckenridge Triangular with the Cowboys and Border West. “Good matches to get us ready for the tournaments,” said Hanson.
United Clay Becker Badgers are 10-13 in duals, while Thief River Falls is 17-8 on the year.