CROOKSTON PIRATES HAVE SIX ADVANCING TO THE STATE WRESTLING TOURNEY

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team has six wrestlers advancing to the Minnesota State High School League State Class A Individual Wrestling tournament next week at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul.  Evin Trudeau, Gavyn Hlucny, Carter Coauette, and Ethan Boll won the championship and advance.  Ethan Bowman and Hunter Knutson advance as runners-up.  The story, Pirate results, a bunch of pictures, and the video replay of the tournament are all below.

CHAMPIONS-
Evin Trudeau made quick work of his first round match at 106-pounds  with a pin in 1:14 to advance.  In the semi-finals, Evin dominated for six minutes and won by an 8-3 decision.  In the championship, Evin (the #2 seed) took on Conrad Koll of United North Central (the #1 seed).  Trudeau took a 2-0 lead early in the match, but Koll countered with a reversal to tie the match at 2. Evin had a reversal to take a 4-2 lead at the end of the first period. In the second period, Trudeau was able to get three near-fall points for a 7-2 lead.  Trudeau took a 7-3 lead into the third period.  Evin started the third perid with a reversal for a commanding 9-3 lead before Koll answered with a reversal to cut the Trudeau lead down to 9-5.  That is how the match would end and Evin Trudeau will advance to his first state tournaement at the first Pirate to advance to state.

Gavyn Hlucny didn’t even break a sweat in his first match at 120-pounds with a pin in 23-seconds.  He was dominate again with a pin at 1:37 in the semifinals.  In the championship, Gavyn wrestled Zach Hendrickson of United North Central.  Gavyn trailed 2-0 after a takedown, but responded with a reversal and the match was tied at 2 going into the second period.  In the second, Gavyn scored two more points on a reversal with 24-seconds left in the period to take a 4-2 lead.  In the third period, Gavyn scored two more on a takedown for a 6-2 lead and he was able to hold off the rest of the way to become the second Pirate to win a championship with a 6-2 victory for his first trip to the state tournament.

Carter Coauette started the day strong with a pin in the first period at 138-pounds.  In the semi-finals, he beat the #1 seed Tyler Moe of Frazee by a hard-fought and exciting 3-2 victory.  In the championship, Carter wrestled Zach Thompson of Fosston-Bagley. In the first period he was taken down and trailed 2-0.  Carter quickly responded with an escape to get within a 2-1 deficit.  In the second period, Thompson scored a point on an escape before Coauette countered with a reversal for a tie at 3.  Thompson scored on an ecape to take a 4-3 lead before Carter countered with a reversal to take a 5-4 lead with 25-seconds left in the second period.  The scoring in the period wasn’t done at Thompson scored two on a reversal with one second left to take a 6-5 lead.  In the third period, Coauette scored a point with an escape three seconds into the period to tie the match at 6.  With 45-seconds left, Carter scored on a takedown for an 8-6 lead.  With 27-seconds left, Thompson scored on an escape to get within an 8-7 deficit, but Coauette was able to hold on to win the match 8-7 to advance to his second state tournament, this time as a Section champion.

Ethan Boll elected to move up to 220-pounds for the individual tournament and received the top seed, receiving a first round bye.  In the semi-finals, Ethan came out and had a takedown in the first seconds and won the match by pin in one minute.  In the championship, Ethan wrestled Jordan Kroll of Barnesville. Boll came out strong and took a 7-1 lead with 1:13 left in the first period!  It didn’t take much longer and Boll won by a pin at 1:39 to win the section championship and he will advance to state for the third time in his career.  With the two pins, Boll has 30 pins on the year and became the all-time Crookston Pirate Wrestling season pin leader.

SECOND PLACE –
Ethan Bowman had a great start to the day as he won his first match at 152-pounds by pin in 75 seconds.  In the semi-finals, Ethan wrestled a fantastic match and beat Keegan Senger of Fosston-Bagley by an 8-5 decision, handing Senger his first loss of the year.  Ethan wrestled Ethan Hendrickson of United North Central in the championship. There wasn’t any scoring until Hendrickson scored two on a takedown with 27-seconds left in the first period.  In the second, Hendrickson started with an escape and followed with a takedown that turned into a pin as the buzzer sounded and Hendrickson won the match.  Bowman beat the third place finisher so there wasn’t a true second match and Ethan Bowman advances to state as a Section runner-up.  It will be his second trip to the state individual tournament.

TRUE SECOND-
Hunter Knutson received a bye in the first round at 182-pounds as the second seed.  In the semi-finals, Hunter was dominate on his way to a 9-4 decision.  In the championship, Hunter wrestled #4 ranked Caleb Vacura of Badger/Greenbush-Middle River.  Vacura showed why he is one of the top ranked wrestlers as he took a 7-0 lead into the second period.  Vacura added five more points in the second period for a 12-0 lead.  In the third period, Vacura scored four more points for a 16-0 lead and a tech fall.
Knutson wrestled Shawn Hendrickson of United North Central in the True Second match. It was scoreless after the first period.  Int he second, Knutson scored the first point with an escape at the end of the period for a 1-0 lead.  In the third, Hendrickson took the lead with 1:23 remaining with a reversal.  With 30-seconds left in the match, Knutson took the lead with a reversal and a couple of seconds later he added two back points for a 5-2 lead.  Hendrickson made it interesting with an escape with 10-seconds left, but Knutson held on to win 5-4 to advance to his second state individual wrestling tournament.
Knutson won the 75th match of his career with his first win.

THIRD PLACE – 
Casey Weiland had two great matches to advance to the championship at 132-pounds with a first round victory by pin in the first period.  In the semi-finals, Casey was wrestling a great match and wore down his opponent to get a pin with 17-seconds left in the match to advance to the championship.  Casey took on the top seed Ayden Hauck of Barnesville for the championship. Hauk built a 5-0 lead after one period and added six more points in the second period for an 11-0 lead.  Casey finally got on the board in the third period with a reversal, but Hauck answered with an escape and a takedown for a 14-2 victory.
Casey wrestled Bailey Peichel of Frazee in a true second match. Casey trailed 4-0 going into the second period.  There wasn’t any scoring in the second period until Weiland had a reversal with four-seconds remaining in the period.  The third period was an exciting one with both wrestlers scrambling, but neither wrestler was able to score a point and Peichel held on for a 4-2 victory and Weiland finished third place.

Spencer Ness won the first match of the day at 160-pounds with a pin in the second period.In the semi-finals, Spencer lost by a tech fall in the second period.In the wrestlebacks, Ness won an exciting match by a 9-7 decision. Spencer wrestled Levi Qualley of Fertile-Beltrami for third place. Qualley took the lead with an early takedown, but Ness countered with a reversal to tie the match at 2.  In the second period, Ness scored an escape with 15-seconds left for a 3-2 lead.  Qualley tied the match up early in the third period with an escape before Ness scored two points on a takedown with 1:26 left.  Qualley had an escape before Ness countered with a takedown with 35-seconds left for a 7-4 lead.  That is how the match would end and Ness would get a true second match against Will Olson of Mahnomen-Waubun.  In the true-second match, Olson dominated and took a 7-1 lead after the first period.  Olson took a 9-1 lead going into the third period where we would go on to win 11-3 and Spencer Ness finished third place.
With the first win of the day, Ness recorded the 50th win of his career.

THIRD PLACE –
Hunter Kresl had a first-round bye at 195-pounds with only four wrestlers competing at the weight.In the semi-finals, Hunter lost to Fertile-Beltrami’s Tyler Stuhaug 7-2.Hunter received a bye to the third-place match where he will take on Erick Rodelo of Frazee. Kresl gave up a point and trailed 1-0.  In the second period, Kresl caught his opponent and scored on a takedown tor a 2-1 lead and a few seconds later he won by a pin to finish third place.  There was no true second match at 195-pounds.

SIXTH PLACE- 
Layten Fuentes had a tough draw in his first match of the day while taking on the top seed in the first round at 152-pounds and lost 9-0.In the wrestlebacks, Layten won his first match by pin in the second period.In the consolation semi-finals, Layten lost to Seth Lavalier of Fertile-Beltrami by pin in the second period.In the fifth-place match, Layten lost a heart-breaker to Thomas Azure of Mahnomen-Waubun by a 6-5 decision and finished sixth place.

SECTION 8A ACADEMIC ALL-STARS – 
Student-athletes must be in 10th – 12th grade, have a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Crookston – Ethan Bowman, Ethan Boll
United North Central – Ethan Hendrickson, Eion Ness, Aaron Lake, Torrey Carlson
Frazee – Daniel Graham, Tyler Moe, Jake Nagel
Fertile-Beltrami – Micah Herbel, Wesley Ramberg
Fosston-Bagley – Keegan Senger, Aiden Wolfe
Barnesville – Ayden Hawk, Brogen Beito

Team GPA Award (Top 10 wrestlers) – United North Central (3.70 GPA)

Sportsmanship Award (voted on by officials) – Crookston

Section 8A Coach of the Year – Jacob Oyster
Assistant 8A Coach of the year – Luke Davidson

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