CROOKSTON WRESTLERS SWEEP PELICAN RAPIDS AND MAHNOMEN-WAUBUN, BOWMAN WINS 75TH CAREER MATCH

The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team won the first five matches on their way to a 46-28 victory over the Pelican Rapids Vikings and won six of the first seven matches to beat the Mahnomen-Waubun Thunderbirds 58-21 in a triangular held at the Crookston High School gymnasium.  Ethan Bowman won his 75th match of his career with a forfeit win against Pelican Rapids. 

CROOKSTON vs PELICAN RAPIDS 
The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team did what they have done all season long by getting a big lead early and holding on the rest of the way in a 46-28 victory over the Pelican Rapids Vikings.
Evin Trudeau got things started, at 106 pounds, with an exciting match. It was back-and-forth for the first two periods, but Evin had a nice move with a cradle and got a pin in the third period to give Crookston a 6-0 lead. “He wrestled well, locked up the cradle, and got the pin,” said Coach Wes Hanson. “Evin got us rolling right away.”
Nolan Dans followed suit at 113 pounds with a pin in the second period with a nice cobra move for a pin.  “Nolan had a nice performance,” said Coach Hanson. “He hit his cobra move for a pin so it was exciting to see.”
Carter Coauette came out strong in his match and won by a pin in the first period. “He really looked good,” said Coach Hanson. “He was moving forward, hands down, and was in a good position.”
It was an anti-climactic 75th career victory for Ethan Bowman as he won his match at 126 pounds by a forfeit. “I was hoping they would put somebody out there,” said Coach Hanson. “He has a lot of wins as they are adding up.”
Zach Brown wrestled a great match at 132 pounds and controlled the match from start to finish on his way to a 17-3 major decision victory to give the Pirates a 28-0 lead. “Zach picked up a number of takedowns, but he also wrestled well on top,” said Coach Hanson. “He wrestled well tonight.”
Pelican Rapids stopped the Pirate win streak with four straight wins. The first three were by decision and the fourth victory was by a forfeit to get within a 28-16 deficit. Crookston’s Cade Coauette won his match at 170 pounds by a forfeit to give the Pirates a 34-16 lead.
At 182 pounds, Pelican Rapids’ Johnny Ziebell had an impressive match and won by a pin in the third period to bring the Vikings within a 34-20 deficit with three matches remaining.
Pelican Rapids didn’t have anybody at 195 pounds, so Crookston’s Ethan Boll received a forfeit victory to solidify a Pirate team victory.
Pelican Rapids won the match at 220 by a pin, but at heavyweight, Crookston’s Greg Gonzalez wrestled his first match of the season and won by pin in 39 seconds to give the Pirates a 46-28 victory to improve to 7-2 in duals on the season. “We were excited to get Greg back out on the mat.  He came out strong and had a nice win,” said Coach Hanson. “It was a good match several matches going six minutes, which is always nice.  We saw some good things and even in the losses, we saw some good wrestling from our guys.”

CROOKSTON vs MAHNOMEN-WAUBUN
Mahnomen-Waubun won the 106-pound match in an exciting 4-2 match to take a 3-0.   Crookston bounced back to win the next six matches.  It started with Nolan Dans getting a 9-0 victory. “Nolan came out and wrestled well,” said Coach Hanson. “He had some nice moves on his way to the win by decision.”  Carter Coauette answered with a quick win by pin in 38 seconds. “Carter took care of business right away and that got us up to a good start,” said Coach Hanson.
Ethan Bowman followed with a big win by pin in the first period over Garret Eiynk.  It looked look Eiynk had Bowman on his back and close to a pin, but Ethan rolled right through and countered with a cradle for the pin in just over a minute to give the Pirates a 16-3 lead. “That was a huge win for Ethan,” said Coach Hanson. “It was a great night for him and he beat a kid that has been in the state tournament a couple of times, so that was a nice win.”
Cam Weiland won his match at 132 pounds by a forfeit before the Pirate quick pin parade continued with Zach Brown getting a pin in 69 seconds and Braxton Volker won by a pin at 145 pounds in 60 seconds and Crookston was off to a 34-3 lead. “Those guys were coming out strong and wrestled well in their matches,” said Coach Hanson.  “It is always nice to get those bonus points.”
Crookston lost the 152-pound match before Spencer Ness won by a pin in 1:19 and Hunter Knutson won by a forfeit at 160 and 172 pounds respectively.  “Spencer is good on his feet and digs in and let him have it,” said Coach Hanson.
The Pirates weren’t done with the quick pin parade as Ethan Boll won by a pin in 1:16 at 195 pounds and Greg Gonzalez won by a pin in 19 seconds at heavyweight and Crookston beat Mahnomen-Waubun 58-21.  “Ethan has been getting more forfeits than we would like, but he got a couple nice takedowns before the pin so that was good for him to get a match in,” said Coach Hanson. “Greg went out there and went for it right away.  It is fun to get him back on the mat.”

Crookston improves to 8-2 in duals and will host Park Rapids and Badger-Greenbush-Middle River on Thursday.